The Pickpocket and the Fraud
by Kirjoitabls
Summary: Desperation makes people do things. Commit high level forgery, steal from rich people, kill someone... fall in love? Rated M for Visceral Violence, Dark and Suggestive Themes, and Language. NO LEMONS OR LIMES!
1. Memories and Consequences

**A/N: Here you go! My new story, and this ship is…. well, you see it already. Jaune X Emerald. I'll put this story as Rated M, not because I intend to place Lemons in here, but because… well…. it's probably going to be a bit darker, a bit grittier, more violent, more disturbing themes, etc, than my other stories. Why? Because I can, dammit. Besides, Emerald is a really dark character to focus on. And to justify her actions to make her a reasonable match for Jaune relies on… well…. exploring extremes.**

 **Also yes, the title is a pun on "The Princess and the Frog."**

 **Starts at the beginning of Volume 2, when the "exchange students" fully arrive.**

* * *

 _ **The Pickpocket and the Fraud**_

 _By Kirjoitabls_

* * *

 _The neon lights were harsh along the streets, as women dressed with barely anything roamed, promising the loathsome people that haunted that road could forget their disgusting appearance, and feel good. Feel wonderful within them. For a price, as was the custom. Empty people living empty lives could be less empty for a moment, as bodies made the buyer feel whole, and the purchased be rewarded with cash. As designated by their caregiver._

 _There were the risks, however. Vulgar things lurked within the fluids of men and women alike. You go to a good source to make sure your one night of luxury did not end with a lifetime of rashes or even premature death. You want to be fucked one night, not be fucked over for the days to come. A poor person who loathes the fact he still breathes can afford a risk, but someone who desires to remain, can't afford to be lecherous with impunity. There must be caution, and assurance of quality. And that also came at a price of cash._

 _But even then there were risks. Odd risks. Unlikely risks. Risks that people don't take into account because they're so damn irregular and inconceivable, the latter being an oddly appropriate word._

 _"You told me you was takin' those pills!"_

 _"I am, I promise I am…. I'm…. I'm sorry!" The woman wept to her boss, the pregnancy test in her hands._

 _"Fuckin' Luna, damn…." The man named Asp spat. "Look, you're a good girl. Always done me right. Paid my share. Gave me no damn trouble, but this…. I can get some weird fetishist for you but other than those weird fucks you won't get me a dime when that belly of yours starts bustin'."_

 _"I'm sorry! I'm…. I'm so sorry…" she wept. She cried most of the nights she was lucky enough to spend alone. "I… I don't know what to do…"_

 _"You continue fucking. That's what you do. That's what you've been doing for me for the last two years. Keep fucking, and when it's visible, I'll put you for high dollar on the fetishist market. As I said, You's done me right. I won't do you wrong now." The woman kept weeping. Those words didn't make her happy, but then again, what could he have said to make it better?_

 _"And when you has that kid, it will go to an orphanage, you don't have to raise it, you don't have to make it your problem. And hey! If there are more weirdos who find pregnancy attractive out there, maybe we can talk about early retirement, eh?" Asp continued speaking those words she found no respite in. The tears started stopping, however. She found the restraint she usually had when she felt the need to cry._

 _"Look, doll. Take the night off, I don't wants you thinkin' 'bout this, it would ruin the mood to any client. Go home, mull this ova' and when you feels okay, I'll be here. No pay while on break though…. Can't provide for ya if you don't provide for me, know what I'm sayin'?"_

 _She nodded, her face marred by the weeping._

* * *

Tukson was a tough fight. Tougher than she expected at least. Normally two-on-ones, her and Mercury, it was easy. They fought a Maiden together for Oum's sake! Agreed, without Cinder's careful plan and her own assistance they would've been toast, but their target was a mystical relic of an ancient time, this was some defective White Fang has-been.

Yet Emerald was panting, Mercury himself looked sore. However, they looked better than their target, who was sprawled on the floor, scratches and bruises covering his body. His shirt and pants were torn, and what remained was sorrowfully lacking in proper coverage. She couldn't see anything 'inappropriate,' but it left little to the imagination.

He looked pathetic. It was almost sad.

Whenever she felt guilt, however, she just had to remember where she was. Guilt was for people who couldn't take making hard decisions. Decisions for survival. If she didn't take this path, she wouldn't have survived. At least, she would only scrap by, her life a delicate weight by a thread. Now she wasn't hungry.

She will never be hungry.

Tukson pushed himself up, his arms quivering at the weight of himself. Mercury leaned down, a smile on his face.

"Would you like to keep fighting? You don't seem up for it, but I'm willing to humor-" Mercury didn't finish his taunt as blood splattered across his face, spat upon by the rebellious faunus. Mercury grimaced, wiping off the saliva enveloped stain upon his face. He looked at her, his face annoyed but not indignat, "Emerald, would you like the honors, or should I?"

 _Never show nerves, and never show mercy._ "Thank you." Emerald smiled as she pulled up one of the Verdant Stalkers, her weapon. She put it to Tukson's face and pulled the trigger.

A blast was heard, as the auraless skull made contact with the bullet. Brains and bone spread across the carpet like an overly violent sneeze, staining the nice surface. Tukson's head, now only partly intact, rested almost peacefully on the floor, his mind at peace as it was strewn in pieces on his store floor.

Emerald was at first hesitant to kill, and while she would never claim that it brought her joy like it did to Torchwick's psychotic pet, she got used to it.

Killing was a means to an end; here she was fulfilling a bargain to their alliance with the White Fang: A bunch of bull-headed extremists with no real strategy or tangible end goal. What was it? Conquer the continent of Vytal and create their own unified kingdom? Enslave all humans? Kill all the humans? What a laugh: one couldn't fix millennia of social constructs with violent exercises aimed haphazardly at those who wronged them. You just end up with vengeance, not progress.

It's why she had no goals. No ambitions. Only the interest of survival. Cinder offered a means. She took it.

And here she was, killing a man. A _faunus_ man, nothing to weep over.

"Well, that was a pain in the ass," Emerald mused.

"You're telling me, he almost made me sweat!" Mercury snorted as he pressed his gun-loaded boots on the man's chest.

"You are sweating, Merc." Emerald snarked, a smirk adorning her face.

"It's a figure of speech, Emerald." Mercury sighed, removing his boot and backing away from the corpse. "Does Cinder expect us to clean this shit up?"

"Torchwick has some clean-up crews for this kind of thing, at least that's what I gathered. We just need to make sure no one can see this through the windows."

"Sounds like a plan." Mercury continued smirking as he drew all the blinds, which would not be questioned due to the _Closed_ sign. "It's a shame though…" Mercury bowed his head, shaking it lightly, "this will be the most fun we'll have for a while."

"This isn't 'fun' Mercury." Emerald didn't have to pretend she enjoyed killing people, "it's a job. Just like pretending to be normal, stupid students is part of the job."

"Yeah, but it will be a much more BORING part of the job." Mercury sighed, "I have to go easy on my sparring partners, not cause trouble, not bring attention to myself…. That's easy for you, but for me…" Mercury gestured towards himself, "that's gonna be a serious chore."

"You'll get used to it." When Emerald started, she had to be indescribable. Unassuming. Nothing of note. How Cinder found her was almost a critique on how she failed. She was thankful for Cinder, without her she'd still be a starving thief on the streets of Mistral, but it still reflected poorly on her initial skills.

With Cinder she became stronger. She still could become stronger. With Cinder it was within her power to ascend what she was and escape the foul stench that drenched her origins. Without Cinder she would've been nothing. A pickpocket with a mild success rate, nothing more.

Her powers, from combat to semblance, were honed. She had to sell her soul in a way, make herself subservient ever more to the mysterious woman who found her that day, and to take the lives of people who maybe were just like her, just trying to get by, but it was a cost she was willing to pay.

If one wasn't willing to pay, one wouldn't be able to get.

Mercury scrubbed his boots of remaining blood, sighing all the while. "Worst part of the job," he mumbled as Emerald simply crossed her arms and watched her partner. Mercury wasn't someone she understood. His childhood was hell: that much she knew, but Emerald wasn't one to pity another's childhood. No one pitied hers.

Still, Mercury just didn't seem to give a damn. About anything. About anyone, not even himself. He just went with a flow that led him anywhere. He didn't HAVE to follow Cinder, his skills were clearly already founded, having bested his own father, a known assassin. He could've done anything else, but he followed Cinder, because….

They found him shortly after his success over his father? Probably. If you don't give a shit, you take the first offer given.

Emerald took Cinder's offer because she saw nothing else ahead of her.

They left the store. They had some free time to dawdle in Vale before they had to report back to their boss. There wasn't much they wanted to do…

"So….I'm going to see if there's some chick in need of company… unless you…"

"No Mercury." Emerald simply replied, Mercury nodded expectantly.

"Well, I'll meet you at night during that meeting with Torchwick." Mercury scampered off. The man was charming enough to convince some random lady for some casual fun, even after committing murder.

 _You're the one who pulled the trigger._ Emerald shook that thought out of her head. So what? Tukson was probably going to be shot anyway by the White Fang. The fact she did it was nothing to feel too conscious about. The flow of time, the entity of cause and effect, she simply played a part. A part that could've been anyone, and if she wasn't part of it, it may make her less guilty, but it wouldn't have changed anything.

Guilt was for the weak. Guilt was for people too afraid to pick a side.

Guilt was for people who would die, sooner or later. She didn't intend to join them. She'd rather be the perpetrator than the receiver.

* * *

 _The boy played in the yard. He had a stick in his hand, and he waved it around haphazardly, tearing down unseen assailants as he made childish yet visceral sound effects with his mouth. In between "strikes" and "impacts" he giggled in his play, innocent to what such heroics were like in practice._

 _"He's like me," Noah sighed as he watched his son play. "I can't be too surprised."_

 _"We both had that illusion, dear." Lumen sat next to him, her hand in his hand. "We simply… can't feed it to him. Make him believe it more and more."_

 _"Considering how things are, he will always see Hunting as a glorious and fulfilling profession. The media always portrays it as such. The movies always portray it as such." Noah voiced his annoyance, the dichotomy of what was seen and what was always rubbed him the wrong way. Ever since he realized what being a huntsman was. Not a hero, but a sacrifice._

 _Remnant needed them, but was his son to be one of those sacrifices? Was he to be one of those sacrifices? Was Lumen?_

 _He and his wife had done enough. Noah watched his team-mates die on a difficult mission shortly after graduation. Lumen had her entire team alive, but inwardly shattered, fatigued after a grueling and ultimately failing duel trying to stop Ironwood's takeover of Mantle._

 _They had suffered. They had watched people die, and they had watched people being broken on the inside, without having to pass on._

 _And the point was for the human race to exist a little bit longer? They appreciated the profession, they really did, but they realized it wasn't for them._

 _And it shouldn't be for their children, either._

 _"How do we do it, then? How do we prevent them from following our mistakes without terrifying them?" Lumen sadly mused, referring to all their children, including those to come. Lumen had recently realized she was pregnant once more. Oum help it not be another daughter, Noah had enough girls!_

 _"We simply encourage them in other directions, that's all we can do…" Noah sighed as he pulled his wife closer._

 _"I love you, Noah."_

 _"I love you too."_

 _Their child played outside as they kissed, desperate to feel each other, desperate to know the other had survived. To the boy's benefit, he had no idea what was going on. Not what conversation there was, not was soon to follow between the two. For despite their age and maturity, they still had carnal urges._

 _As long as it made them feel alive, it was worth it._

* * *

The back of Jaune's head slammed on the concrete. His vision blurred, but just because he couldn't see, didn't mean he couldn't feel the cold, metallic spear gracing near his throat. It was match, he lost. Though to be fair, it wasn't that surprising, nor even that disappointing.

Jaune had learned that before he could get better, he was going to lose. A lot. Probably every single time. Pyrrha was an undefeated champion, or at least undefeated in recent years. The odds of him breaking that streak? It was so laughable he thought even someone as stoic as Glynda wouldn't be able to contain the guffaws of something so insipidly naïve.

"Better, but can you tell me what you did wrong?" Pyrrha smiled as she removed her spear and offered her hand to get him up. Jaune took it with a smile of his own.

"Well, I didn't block your strike in time, I used my arm to support my shield, not my entire body, and…. I got distracted by your feint which left me open to your finishing blow."

"Good. While being aware of your mistakes is certainly a step in the right direction, it is admittedly harder fixing what you know is wrong in the heat of battle, because in the heat of battle, you don't necessarily have _time_ to run through a checklist of things you have a proclivity of doing…" Pyrrha nodded her head, "nevertheless, you are improving faster than I was expecting, admittedly!"

"Thanks… I guess…. Great to hear you had such HIGH expectations of me…"

"No! No! I didn't mean it like that, I mean… let's be honest, you are REALLY behind in terms of combat training."

"I know I know I'm just giving you crap!" Jaune loved Pyrrha. Not like _that_ , but… well… he was considering it. Still, Pyrrha did what his mother and father never dared to do, have faith in him and give him a chance. He understood they didn't _want_ him to be a huntsman, but he had the right to make his own decisions dammit!

Even if one of those decisions was to clearly break the law and commit a high-level forgery to land him in one of the most prestigious academies in the land: an academy that attracted the world-renowned Pyrrha Nikos, whom he never heard of until meeting her, and somehow, fate decided that she would be his partner.

Okay, Pyrrha decided he was going to be her partner. Why she did Jaune would never fully understand. He had an _idea_ , but he had no confirmation, and Jaune didn't feel like asking Pyrrha at this time.

If she wanted to tell him the reason, she'd tell him.

"Well, we should probably stop here, we'll pick up two days from now. You deserve a little break! You've been working really hard!" Pyrrha didn't stop smiling, she beamed like a mother watching his kid ride a bike for the first time without training wheels.

"Thanks…. But I could…" Pyrrha poked him in the shoulder, and a horrific stinging soreness enveloped his entire body. "….Ow…."

"Now imagine Nora 'booping' you in the same spot."

"Point taken."

Pyrrha laughed as they exited the roof and started walking down the hall. It was empty for the most part, everyone was either sleeping, studying, or avoiding doing both by quietly surfing the internet while their team-members were sleeping or studying.

"So…. Do you have any plans on using your time off?" Pyrrha asked Jaune, a hint of nervousness in the champion's voice.

"Well… you did just tell me that we're not training tomorrow, and I don't plan that much ahead so…" Jaune shrugged, "no."

"Well, do to us hosting the Vytal festival, a lot of Valian restaurants are having some specials and events and…. well, maybe we could, do something there?"

"You mean like a team dinner?"

"Yes! I mean… wait a minute….." Pyrrha sighed, "yes, that sounds like just what I had in mind."

Jaune had a feeling Pyrrha wasn't telling him something, but he wasn't going to force it out of her. It was his duty as a leader to be an ear to listen to, but to not pry too much. Still, he should probably remind her of this. "You know, if there's something you need to tell me, I'm here, right?"

"Yeah… sorry, I'm just….. dreading the exchange students fully arriving tomorrow. I mean…. My fame and they'll fawn, especially the ones from Haven and… you know how much I hate that."

"Well, if you need us to put on nice suits and act as your security detail, sunglasses, ear pieces and everything, I'm willing and I'm sure Nora will play along, which will drag Ren into it…." Pyrrha lightly punched Jaune's shoulder, laughing slightly. There was still pain to the impact, but Jaune was used to it. He laughed it off.

"Thanks, but no need for theatrics…." Pyrrha turned to him and smiled a wide smile, "… though I would appreciate it if the team kept it close."

"Affirmitive." Jaune robotically replied with a salute, earning him another punch in the arm. As Yang would say, Pyrrha was very 'arm-orous' this evening. Dammit Yang, he was starting to see puns everywhere.

When they reached the door to Team JNPR, Nora and Ren greeted them with smiles, excited for the days to come when other exchange students were to join them. At least Nora seemed excited, Ren looked simply content, as he usually was.

His team… what did he do in his previous life to deserve such a great team?

* * *

It was night-time, the ceiling of the warehouse being her only friend. Most students slept in a hotel, but Cinder vouched that "their" team had personal housing to use, to avoid spending the fee for unnecessary lodging. In all honesty, Cinder wanted one last night of relative privacy until they were all forced into a shared dorm. Emerald appreciated it. She had heard Mercury snore.

Even if she has to sleep in a small sub-section of an abandoned warehouse in a sleeping bag on concrete, it was preferred because of the solitude. She had slept in worse, of course. The number of bridges she had taken cover under, smelling of vomit, urine, and even blood, and the only warmth a small trash fire that only lasted until the foam cups she scrapped up faded away.

That was before her aura was unlocked. Before her semblance was discovered. While she struggled pre-Cinder times, it certainly became much easier with her power to fool people. Food was less difficult to come by. Money was even easier.

She sighed into her pillow. She was past that now. She was out of there. No matter what she's been forced to see or do it was all to get out of there. She was doing what every normal person in her situation would do. She saw an opportunity, she grasped it, she dealt with the cost.

All of her friends were now fiends: assassins, psychopaths, mobsters, and mysterious masterminds, and her she was, the thief, the trickster; once a humble pickpocket now an integral part of a well-oiled crime-maintained machine.

It was almost sad, but then again, what in life isn't?

She closed her eyes and let sleep slowly come.

 _Voices ethereal shift in shapeless space. They talk and converse with no point. There's a blast of dust to bullet. There's contact with bullet to skull. Tukson lies on the ground. No… it isn't Tukson. It's someone else._

 _There were shrieks of horror, but all she knew was silence, and the slamming of feet on concrete. The fleeing. The running and running and running. In the end that's the best course of action._

 _She saw blood for the first time. She's seen cuts but that wasn't not blood. THAT was blood. All encompassing, all consuming, all enlivening blood._

 _More shots. Less screams. She should be protecting them. But she can't._

 _She still had that jewel she stole from her. She was going to return it, after she showed it off to the other kids, call it hers._

 _The Emerald._

The ceiling was her only friend, and thankfully the only witness as Emerald's eyes flew open, as she lurched forward in a series of frantic gasps. The room was cold. And empty.

* * *

 _"I'm going to Beacon." He said simply. He made sure his sisters were all off doing something else, this was between him and his parents._

 _"Impossible," his father scoffed, "you have no training! How could you even manage that?"_

 _"I'm taking the bullhead to Vale proper tomorrow, and I will be attending Beacon in the days to come. It's what I'm doing, and you can't stop me."_

 _"Like Hell we can't stop you!" His mother, always the more expressive one, stood up and stomped over to him. "We told you time and time again to NOT think about becoming a Huntsman! We told you time and time again how DANGEROUS, and FRIVOLOUS, and utterly HORSESHIT that occupation is! And now you're just going to waltz into the school and demand to be taught?"_

 _"Yes." He said. They probably knew, as it was heavily implied, that he got in there through… admittedly fraudulent means. It didn't need to be mentioned though. It was even more important that he never explained HOW he got them in the first place._

 _"This… this….. why are you so damn STUBBORN?"_

 _"I am your son." That was the wrong thing to say, especially when he was making eye contact to prove a point._

 _The eye flared up, her left eye was consumed by a blinding golden light, and Jaune cowered before it. It wasn't unusual, but this was the worst he'd ever seen it for a while. It invoked fear, no matter how many times. The light seemed to reach into your brain, grasp it harshly in calloused claws and make you scream, make you feel dread and fear and all that. How his mother could do this… he had no idea. Maybe it was within her training. He wouldn't know: he was never trained._

 _He shrunk back, screaming a horrific shriek. Not girlish like it normally was, but like a nail scratching glass, it was ear splitting, and Mom wouldn't let up. He couldn't look away, he knew he couldn't._

 _"LUMEN!" His father roared, grasping her from behind and yanking her down, forcing the eye to stop. He was panting. His father was panting. His mother was crying._

 _She had no more words. She turned around, pressed her face to her husband's chest, and wept, and shook, and burbled nonsense that he couldn't decipher._

 _"Jaune," his father said, "…if it's too much for you. Please, come home. Please…."_

He always remembered it. He always dreamed it. Not every night, thankfully, but often enough to know to suppress the fright when he woke up. Besides, the fact he was in a damn onesie made any release from a nightmare look incredibly childish.

…He should really move on from it, but it was really, REALLY comfortable.

He simply grasped the seats, and looked around. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora all sleeping soundly. He was past that now. He overcame the first hurdles, and he had support for the remaining hurdles up until graduation. No matter what they said, he was going to be a huntsman.

He wanted to be a hero, but he knew that it wasn't all sunshine past Beacon's doors. He knew he would suffer. But he would be suffering for the benefit of society. That was all a hero was to him, someone willing to sacrifice for the better of others.

Maybe it was for his low self-worth, maybe it was for… thoughts of death being a mercy, he didn't know. He just knew he wanted to do this, whether his parents supported him in this or not.

And if that involved severing ties to his family, and committing forgery to the highest degree he could imagine outside of multi-million dollar counterfeits, then he would do it.

Without it, he'd never have met Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, or Team RWBY. Hell, even Cardin was an acquaintance, the man constantly doing favors to make up for last semester.

The room was warm, and full of things Jaune loved… though maybe the warmth was simply from the onesie. It looked so stupid but it was just SO DAMN COMFORTABLE!

* * *

 **A/N: This is more of an introductory chapter than anything else, as you can see it's not long at all.**

 **I must reiterate, you can clearly see why it's Rated M, and the subject of sex will not be shied away from. But this story will NOT, and will NEVER, contain a Lemon. Not even a Lime! This is a Sprite free zone! Nothing wrong with Lemons and Limes, but I don't think I can write them that well, due to a… lack of experience. Also if I include them they'll take focus off the story. So if you're looking forward to that, don't. If you don't like that kind of thing, welcome!**

 **Other than that, just know I welcome reviews! Positive, negative, as long as they attack my writing and not me, that's perfectly fine. I LOVE reading people's comments!**

 **Also, if you'd like, Favorite and Follow! It will let me know how interested people are into this story!**


	2. Camaraderie and Duties

**A/N: When even the most critical of reviews state that they are at least curious towards the next chapter, I can't help but feel welcome. Nevertheless, I heard the concerns and I heard them loud and clear, and I am looking out for them as I write. Especially when it comes to flashbacks: that won't be a regular thing. I know it's a kind of lazy way to set things up, but it was just used to set things up. They may come again, but not with regular frequency. There isn't one in this chapter, for instance.**

 **I don't own RWBY. That goes to Rooster Teeth, with its conception to the late Monty Oum.**

* * *

"So…." One of the guards coughed, "...what are the odds we'll be attacked tonight?"

The other guard snorted. "Pretty damn likely, actually." They were stationed together, placed on a crosswalk overlooking the warehouse floor. A dust shipment had been sent by the SDC to contribute to the Vytal Festival. The previous shipment had gone so well... being attacked by Torchwick and an onslaught of White Fang soldiers. They were chased off before a sizeable dent was made, but they ran off with a significant amount. Security measures had been doubled. They overlooked the area, several people patrolled the ground, and many other guards walked around the perimeter. Guns fully loaded, and swords just in case close quarters combat was to be necessary.

"Shouldn't be too bad. I mean, Torchwick seems like a piece of work from what I heard. Weird huntsman style weapon." The other guard nodded in agreement. "Still, White Fang grunts? They're only good with the lights off."

It was at that moment the entire warehouse floor went dark, lightbulbs flaring up before dimming down, the blackness enveloping the entire building.

"Well….. shit."

Still, it wasn't too bad a loss. They turned on the flashlights connected to their rifles. Glorious rays of light pierced the ominous darkness, as every guard turned theirs on, the floor once more visible, if not more polluted with flickering shadows.

But it did mean that they weren't alone anymore.

They softened their breathing, their training steeling them for the fight to come. Any flicker of unrecognized movement would result in the press of a trigger. Patrolmen made sure to wait for a couple seconds to make sure they didn't attack their fellow man. Each step, echoed in the massive storage facility, was also marked by the echoing steps of the other gunmen. But still, it was their training to discern a threat, regardless of any circumstances. And when they do….

"AUUURG-mmmmph!" A stifled cry suddenly captured everyone's attention, weapons pointing to where the sound was heard. It was in the shadows, but the flurry of flashlights illuminated the entire corner.

It was two people, a guard and… a child? No. She was short, not childlike. She held the guard by the mouth, her hand gagging the agonized man, whose eyes were widened in a mixture of horror and pain. Her hand that wasn't visible was positioned behind the guards back. Jutting from the man's stomach was a blade. Red blood oozed out, small pats barely heard as it dripped onto the concrete floor.

"FREEZE!" Shouted the man closest to the scene, his gun shaking slightly. The assassin smirked, shaking her head, waving her multicolored hair, in an almost playful 'no.' The blade jutted out further from the man's stomach, as the guard gasped from his muffled mouth, and then went silent as he went limp, eyes wide in terror.

That was all they needed. The guards opened fire. The dead man fell to the floor with a plop as the small girl unfurled what seemed to be the top half of an umbrella. Somehow the frilly fabric that made the umbrella blocked bullets. She lifted the saber that now dripped with blood, and sheathed it into the umbrella, now holding the shaft with both hands.

When the bullets weren't working, the ground troops unsheathed their swords and went at the assailant at once, while those remaining on the catwalk kept their guns drawn, attempting to line up the perfect shot. However, with the flurry of bodies, it was hard to get a clean aim at the target, but they waited, and hoped their comrades knew what they were doing.

They attempted to surround the girl, forcing her to fight at all angles. That didn't seem to faze her. Carefully watching both her and his comrades, the first guard lunged with the saber, stopped mid stab and switched to a guard, hoping for the girl to be tricked by the feint, while the one opposite of him leapt in for a real attack while the girl's face was directed towards the first guard.

She smiled knowingly.

She grabbed the umbrella and thrust it behind her, knocking her attacker to the ground, before going low and performing a lightning fast sweep on the first guard. The other two, suddenly aware that that didn't work, went forward at the same time, angling their blades downwards towards the crouching femme fatale.

An unfurled umbrella was switched to its 'proper' position, as the girl quickly rose, parrying both strikes, as she jumped in the air, and split kicked both the other guards in the faces. Five guards were on the ground. Only one of them dead. That needed to change.

Fortunately for the men, with all the soldiers down the gunmen on the catwalk had a clear shot. Two high caliber bullets whizzed into the girl's direction. She pouted, but she knew what to do. She raised the umbrella, positioning the nylon like a shield from the shots. She shattered into multiple pieces.

"What the fuck?!" The first gunman yelled, as the other gunman simply muttered under his breath. Damn aura and its weird magic tricks. They wish they had aura, but to get that done you either have to be well connected to know someone licensed to unlock it, rich enough to pay someone to unlock it, or…. That was it.

The men on the ground started getting up, looking around to see where she went. The only thing they could hear were their breaths, as they panted in panic and exertion. Air went in, air went out.

 _CRACK!_ The girl descended from the ceiling, landing directly on a guard's head, audibly breaking the skull. Blood oozed onto her shoe as she kicked the adjacent guard hard in the ribs. She unsheathed the sword from the umbrella and swiftly pivoted into a stab right through another guard's Adam's apple. He gurgled his last breath as blood limply fell from his mouth. The girl once more smirked.

The final guard tried to fire a shot point blank, but it seemed the small assassin had seen that coming, and somehow, with the body still attached to her sword, whipped the corpse to block the shot and then ram said corpse into the attacker, knocking him off his balance and falling onto his back. Before he hit the floor, however, the hook that made the pommel of her short-sword and umbrella caught him behind the neck. He was forced upright into the girl's outstretched hand, which shoved his head at the same time his neck was forced upright. His neck snapped.

The guard that was merely kicked recovered, and at seeing the other three now lying dead, just dropped his gun and ran.

His head was promptly blown to pieces by a round of highly condensed fire dust aimed right for his cranium.

The men in the rafters in panic started firing at the diminutive form, which now turned her gaze towards them. She raised the umbrella top blocking all the shots, as she ran along the warehouse. They were too focused on her to see another person emerge from the darkness.

The gaudily dressed man, complete with eyeliner and stylish white coat, aimed the end of a cane at the catwalk. He fired.

An explosion rocked the catwalk, as one end dislodged from the ceiling and clattered down to the ground. The steep slant caught the gunmen off guard, and they lost their balance, tumbling down onto the cold concrete.

"Uhg, now I know why my clean-up crews are demanding a raise, knowing that you're back in town." The voice of the infamous Roman Torchwick echoed in the darkened room.

Silence answered him. Then there were footsteps.

"Yes, okay, you weren't the one to blow up a head, but still, look at all this!"

One of the guards tried to blink, his vision fading. His back aching.

A foot pressed onto his stomach. He looked up. He saw two mismatched eyes staring him down.

There was a pain in his gut, the feeling of blood rushing up his throat like vomit. His vision blurred, but those eyes kept staring. And her face didn't stop smiling.

He whimpered, he felt the warmth of blood rush out his mouth and moisten his face. It spread across his cheeks. It was warm, but he could only see the cold mismatched eyes. The cold smile.

The cold glee.

The pain got more and more, his gut feeling more and more torn open. Steel replaced innards. He tried crying out for help, but all he could do was mutely wail in pain.

He finally stopped feeling anything.

* * *

There was a gaudiness to the academies: expressions of opulence and power that made Emerald grimace at the sight. As the roads of the underbelly of the cities were cracked, filthy, and unsupervised, so too were effective playground for kids polished and magnificent. The hunstmen and huntresses of the world endured dangers that the majority could not fathom, but so pampered are they compared to the rest of civilization.

She wanted to tear them down. Tear the school down. They think they're the only ones to experience hardship. They were wrong.

Cinder behind them, as not to bring attention to herself. Indeed, in public one could easily observe that Cinder was a hands-off, unassuming leader, just as she hoped it to be. In private she controlled Mercury and herself as harsh as any leader. Any doubt towards her or deviation from the plan could result in punishment. Emerald had been slapped by Cinder more than she'd been slapped by her mother.

She was stifled by the Haven uniform. The cloth on her body were like beefy, strangling arms violating her form. She hated it. She hated pretending to be of those naïve, spoiled brats, prancing about in uniform like that made them so damn important.

Nevertheless, she smiled. She waved at people who recognized her. She pretended that she was in awe of the majesty of Beacon academy.

"So, do you think Ne-… I mean… Lacey Mint will be joining us?" Mercury wondered aloud. Emerald herself was curious. Neo normally hung out with them, but that was because she was separated by her employer Torchwick. Now that they were reunited, Neo having to stay with them for a semester at Haven, they would probably be seeing a lot less of her.

Emerald couldn't help but like that. Neo… unsettled her.

"Lacey is a shy, reclusive girl who only talks to people she cares about, and often does things without our knowledge." Cinder replied. Emerald nodded her head. That was their story if anyone ever asked why their fourth team-mate was so often missing. It would also explain Cinder's occasional absence, as 'Lacey' was Cinder's 'partner.' 'Cinder's looking for Lacey,' Emerald and Mercury gave that excuse almost instinctually.

They were Team CMLE. (Chamomile) Neo being the only one to actually change her name… even though she didn't really have a name anyway. She never talked. They only knew she went by Neo from Cinder, who only knew from Torchwick, who only knew because…. Reasons. Maybe he gave the nickname. Her outfit and hair resembled Neapolitan ice cream, and Nea sounded stupid. That's what Emerald presumed at least.

"Well, as long as she doesn't borrow my shampoo again," Mercury ran his hair through his silver locks, "then all will be well."

"N…Lacey does what she wants." Emerald sighed. It was true. Neo used her makeup. And people called HER the thief.

Neo never touched anything of Cinder's, however. Couldn't blame her on that one.

"We should look for our dorms in that building." Cinder casually stated, pointing at the domestic dormitories for Beacon students.

"Actually Cindy, that's where…" Mercury started until he turned around to see Cinder's glare. Emerald couldn't help but internally chuckle. "…we're going right now without question."

Cinder wanted to scope out the school. See who lived where. Why she wanted to know that was a guess for Emerald at best, but Cinder had some of the best instincts of anyone she'd ever met. Emerald had faith that Cinder knew what she was doing.

They walked around the halls. Some students were kind enough to politely tell them they were in the wrong building and where to find the right one. Cinder thanked them each time. They continued walking, as Cinder's eyes seemed to note every single face they came across.

It was when they were stopped by a small girl that Cinder seemed to glow the most. Silver eyes stared in an almost confused recognition, before she seemed to shrug them off.

"That's the girl Torchwick had issues with earlier." Cinder quietly whispered, voice only barely more audible than Neo's. Emerald nodded. 'Little Red.' Emerald herself took note.

As Emerald herself was trying to emulate her mentor, taking note of every huntsman and huntress in training that graced her eyesight, she felt a very human urge overcome her. It made her sweat slightly, and made her groan internally. _Not now…. Dammit._

"Go on without me, I have personal business to attend to." She said robotically to Cinder, who nodded, smiling. As if she knew what was going on without Emerald directly telling the half-maiden. Emerald dispersed from Mercury and Cinder as she went for the bathroom. She drank too much on the flight there. It was free soft-drinks.

She relieved herself in the public toilet, thankful that at least the women in training took pride in hygiene… though looking at the private showers, the drains weren't fully cleaned, looking like the mangled end of a mop. _Didn't the second semester just start?_ She only hoped that the public bathrooms in THEIR dorms maintained better decorum. Possibly the Atlesians would force everyone in order. That would be great.

She exited, collected her bearings in regards to her location in the hallway, and then turned the corner, almost running in to a frazzled, sprinting blonde boy. She extended her hand and pushed on the man's chest, not enough to knock him over but enough to stop him in his tracks.

 _Be polite. Be kind. Sound like some youth who's excited to do good in the world._ "Sorry! Almost bumped into you there!" She chuckled, forcing the genuine feeling of humor out of her lips. The boy's head lurched upwards, blue eyes meeting her red. His breathing hitched as he stepped back, blushed slightly, and stammered.

"Sorry…. I was… I got busy working on an assignment in the library, but I have to meet up with my team now and… I mean… I assume you know how that happens right?" He chuckled slightly. "By the way, I'm Jaune Arc, and you are?" The boy nervously extended his hand.

"….Emerald." She smiled cordially, taking his offer and grasped his hand in hers. "Emerald Sustrai."

"Cool, cool, so… you're one of the exchange students right? And judging from your uniform, you're…. you're…." the boy who called himself Jaune seemed puzzled, his eyes shifting up and down her uniform not in a predatory way, but in a way that he was analyzing something for an exam. "… from Shade?"

 _Is this guy for real? Shade doesn't even have uniforms._ She put those derisive thoughts to the back of her head as she instead faked a laugh, "no… Haven. I'm guessing you've had a long day?" _Be nice Emerald. Not too nice that it doesn't seem genuine, but nice enough._

"You have no idea… and it was supposed to be my off day." Jaune then nervously chuckled once more, "speaking of which, I got to get back to my team." He walked around her and turned his head and waved goodbye, "nice meeting you Emerald. By the way you're in the wrong building!" He didn't bother to tell him what was the right building.

When Jaune disappeared around the corner, Emerald huffed, and mumbled softly. "What did THAT guy do to get into Beacon?"

* * *

Glynda sided with Ozpin on most things. However, she always made it clear when she DIDN'T side with him on something.

"This could be REALLY dangerous. If your theory that our enemies are posing as transfer students are true…."

Ozpin took a loud sip of coffee, "I understand, but it would be no different than the danger we'd put our students in if we just sat back and waited for the first move." He gave her a grave stare. "When we do not know the next move, we must cheat sometimes to find out what it is."

"I feel you force chess metaphors on everything, regardless on how well they work. No offense Ozpin." Glynda rubbed her temples, and scrunched her eyes. "This sounds like a plan Ironwood would cook up."

"No it doesn't, Glynda." Ozpin curtly replied. "It's far too subtle." He slurped down more coffee.

"How do you think any of the other headmasters would think of this? Their students could be in danger too!"

"We put all of our students in danger, Glynda. That's how they grow as Huntsmen, sadly." He stood up from his chair, grabbed his cane, and walked to the massive window. "Danger is a test. It forces people to come up with answers, no matter how unprepared they are." He snickered. "Some more unprepared than others."

"And what if we have someone unprepared lined up in the crossfires, Ozpin." Glynda pressed on. "What if we have our weaker first years paired up with… the enemy? How can we even EXPECT them to be ready?"

Ozpin said nothing, simply staring out the window, continuing to noisily sip coffee.

Glynda groaned, "you don't always have an answer, do you?"

"No."

Glynda stepped forward, "when are we making the announcement?"

"Tomorrow, on the first day of classes. Best have the program seem like a seamless part of the curriculum, and get it started as soon as possible."

"I understand, I'll inform the other professors."

"Thank you Glynda." Ozpin smiled faintly until the elevator doors revealed General Ironwood.

"Ozpin, long time no see!" The mechanical man stated as he strode into the office…

* * *

Team JNPR slept well that night before classes. They had a wonderful team meal in one of Vale's most popular restaurants. Also mercifully not the most expensive, as Jaune opted to help pay for it. Pyrrha insisted to pay for it all, but in spite of the champion's wealth with sponsorship deals and tournament winnings, Jaune respected himself enough to pay for his own food…. Most of the time.

They woke up to Nora's alarm clock, which was an orchestral blast of doom that didn't wake them up as much as it vibrated their beds to shake them off. As Jaune landed on the floor, unsurprised as it was the norm while school was in session, he picked himself up, grabbed his uniform, and made his way to the public restroom to change. After emerging, with Ren alongside him- himself dressed up but his uniform pressed, neat looking, and in superior condition- they met up with the girls, and made way to their first class, which they all had together.

Before they reached the doors, however, the intercom blasted. Professor Goodwitch's voice echoed throughout the halls.

 _"ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS! INSTEAD OF CLASSES AT THE MOMENT, PLEASE MAKE WAY TO THE AUDITORIUM FOR A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! I REPEAT, ALL STUDENTS!"_ Jaune checked his ears to make sure his hearing was okay after the deafening screech of the intercom system, and turned around to face his team.

"Odd. Normally special assemblies are done BEFORE classes start." Ren observed, stroking his chin. Pyrrha nodded while Nora butted in.

"Well, classes haven't started yet, DUH!" She chirped at Ren's side. "Who knows, maybe it's a short assembly just to tell us one thing!"

Jaune had a feeling he wouldn't regret a thing asking this question. "Like what?"

"Hmm…. Maybe that we FINALLY have a School Mascot!" Nora then turned her voice into an official, "as recommended by our own Nora Valkyrie, the school of Beacon now has the Sloth as our mascot! All schools tremble before our cuteness!"

"That… doesn't sound like Ozpin. Or Goodwitch." Ren deadpanned. "Though I hear the resemblance to Port."

"….you asked Beacon to make the SLOTH our mascot?" Pyrrha questioned.

"I don't know why you sound so surprised." Jaune added, making Pyrrha grumble and blush.

"It would be a GREAT idea! I mean… we have the symbols but WHO cares about those!" Nora continued to explain herself, going into great detail how the sloth was not only indicative of Beacon, but also indicative of victory.

"Aren't sloths, like, comically slow?" Jaune asked.

"That's what they want you to think!" Nora justified as they reached the auditorium. They were still among the first to arrive, but the steady stream of students started to almost make them feel claustrophobic, as students of all years started entering the room that usually only housed singular years at a time. And that was only considering THEIR school, there were three other academies attending, even if it were only the teams that qualified for the Vytal Tournament.

"They lull you into a false sense of security, and then they STRIKE with their THREE-TOED SLASH of GLORY!"

"Nora," Ren groaned, "I'm…. never mind."

They continued standing as more and more people entered the room. Due to Pyrrha's fame, thankfully most students gave them a wide enough birth to breathe in. However, Jaune could feel the heat of bodies as they were packed in their like packaged spam.

"Hey Jaune!" Jaune turned around to see the tiny red blur that was Ruby rush over to him. "Hey Pyrrha! Hey Nora! Hey Ren!" She waved frantically. "My team is RIGHT behind me! I'm just way too fast for them!"

"I was already here." Jaune jumped as he turned around to see Blake standing there, arms crossed and smirking. Ruby's eyes widened.

"What… but you were… I was…. It was a CLONE wasn't it?" Ruby pointed an accusing finger at her team-mate.

"You use your semblance, I use mine." Blake shrugged.

Ruby growled and the unfairness of it. Weiss and Yang showed up shortly.

"I'm not playing your stupid games." Weiss huffed. She then motioned her head towards Jaune, who felt himself heat up slightly. "Greetings, Team JNPR."

"H…Hi Weiss! You…. look nice today!" _Dammit Jaune, you're STILL bad at talking to her! You've known her for a full semester and you STILL talk to her as bad as you talked to that Emerald lady._ Jaune sighed internally. He didn't mean to be so awkward but he was caught off guard! It didn't help that she was attractive… no, it wasn't that. It was like she was… dangerous. The way her hand pushed his chest. It was like…. She could rip into his ribs and pull out the heart, veins still attached.

"Hi Jaune." Weiss said simply, shifting her gaze away from him and his team towards the stage of the auditorium.

"One of these days," Yang whispered into his ears, "….maybe. Probably not, actually."

"Thanks…" Jaune glumly replied.

Ozpin arrived on the stage. "Thank you for coming on such short notice, and I apologize for everyone being packed so tightly. We simply didn't know how to make such an announcement, so we decided the most direct, quickest way was best. This will not take up too much of your time, and you can go to classes immediately afterword. You won't be missing much, I assure you, it is syllabus week." There were small chuckles from the audience.

"You are huntsmen and huntresses. You believe your job is to slay monsters, and for the most part, that is true. However, you are also an emissary. An ambassador. You will need to communicate with townsfolk and officials. You will be required to calm down a crowd, to lessen negative emotions. More importantly, however, as you are all neutral to the kingdoms, you are to promote the unity between our four nations.

"Therefore, we found it important for you all to INTERACT with people from the other kingdoms, or at least, from the other kingdoms' schools. We understand that not all of you are suited for such a task, which is fine, however, all teams must participate. Therefore, each team will select one member to be paired up with another selected member from another school to be partners in a new school program. All of it is graded on participation, but we certainly are looking for genuine _participation_." Ozpin glared across the crowd. "Nothing will be too dangerous, or too difficult. But it will certainly encourage teamwork."

Ozpin stood silently as the crowd was allowed to rumble. Jaune ignored remarks that were passed among the throng, and just remained awaiting Ozpin's next word.

"We come as competitors, but in the end, we are here to celebrate cooperation, not competition. Select your team-member now, and send his or her name to this scroll ID." A gigantic screen revealed a slew of letters and numbers that everyone immediately programmed into their scrolls. "If you need time to discuss, and don't know who among you would be best for this task, than clearly you haven't bonded that much within your team yet, and you should pick the person who's tried the most in this regard. That is all. You have five minutes. If you don't respond in five minutes, you'll be selected at random."

A flurry of voices erupted in the room. Thankfully, Jaune heard his team loud and clear.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha almost hurriedly shouted.

"I vote Jaune!" Nora raised her hand and waved it frantically.

Ren nodded towards the two girls.

"Uh... I'm flattered, but…."

Ren stepped up to Jaune, so that Jaune could hear Ren's words. "I'm quiet and come across as rude. Nora is friendly but rubs off on people the wrong way. Pyrrha is awkward and is worried that her 'partner' would fawn over her, like you don't." Pyrrha and Nora, who stepped up to join Ren, nodded vigorously. "You, while certainly the least skilled of all of us, are the most personable of all of us… as long as you don't try to flirt with someone." Ren's glare then steeled. "Don't flirt with her. Even if she looks like Weiss but is actually nice."

"Great rhyme Ren! Do it again!" Nora piped up as Ren slapped his face.

"Look, Jaune…" Pyrrha walked up to her leader. "I've…. I mean….. you're great with people, even if you don't know it. You'll do great in this assignment, better than all of us." She smiled that beaming smile that showed, for some silly reason, that Pyrrha believed in him. Jaune sighed.

"Well, if you think so…." Wasn't he supposed to be the leader? Well, what kind of leader didn't defer to his team occasionally? He didn't have all the answers. He sent his name to the scroll I.D.

* * *

When Emerald, crammed in with all those near-post-pubescent teenagers, heard Ozpin's announcement, she KNEW she would be 'Team CMLE's' representative for whatever stupid project that looney looking headmaster thought of.

Cinder wouldn't want to be bothered with it. Lacey was….NEO, and Mercury was not as experienced as her when it came to playing pretend.

She only hoped she didn't get paired up with some obnoxious first-year whose naiveté had yet to be destroyed.

"You know what to do." Cinder told her, and Emerald sighed.

"You'll do great! Who knows, maybe it will be a hot guy!" Mercury crossed his arms and smirked, "not as hot as me, of course."

"He or she might even be useful… if you're lucky, maybe with someone being considered for the power…." Cinder whispered into her ear. Oh yeah, _the power_. The reason Emerald and Mercury had to fight for their lives against some magical vagabond.

Whoever he or she was, they better not try to get to know her on a personal level. Only work with her on whatever they had to do, and that'd be it.

She sent her name to the Scroll ID.

* * *

After five minutes, the auditorium went quiet. The giant screen then removed the Scroll ID. It then started to display names.

The first set of names Jaune recognized, at least halfway, was _Dove Bronzewing/Ciel Soleil._ Dove, of the four, seemed to be the least dickish of Team CRDL, which is probably why they picked him. Cardin had improved but the guy was still a tool.

Next was _Yatsuhashi Daichi/Sun Wukong._ He didn't know anyone from Team CVFY personally, but he knew of them because they refused to make themselves anything but known. The choice of Yatsu made sense: while he seemed like the Ren type, impersonal, Velvet was chronically shy, Fox didn't say anything, and Coco…. Same reason RWBY probably didn't pick someone like Weiss Schnee. It seemed WAY too easy to get on her bad side.

 _Yang Xiao-Long/Flynt Coal_.  Oum have mercy on anyone who had to work with Yang. Jaune thought the woman was cool, and it made sense she'd be selected out of all of Team RWBY, but still…. Hope that this "Flynt" person didn't have a temptation to touch hair.

Then, he saw his name come up.

 _Jaune Arc/Emerald Sustrai._ He'd heard that name before!

What a coincidence…. Ooohhh boy.

* * *

Emerald didn't believe in fate. She did however, believe in cruel, cruel and insufferable coincidence.

 _In the fifteen seconds I talked with him…. Why? Why was HE selected anyway? I'm…._ Emerald sighed, _I can do this. How bad can this possibly be?_

* * *

 **A/N: For those who have read Zwei-Handlers, my screwball comedy fic, yes. Yes, THAT is true in this story as well. You know what I'm talking about! THAT….relationship. On an unrelated *cough-HACK!* note, writing that Neo scene was HARD! I'm not the best at action, so let me know how much I suck in the reviews!**

 **Still though, I appreciate the amount of supportive, constructively critical, and everything in between I got in response to this story. This will probably be the most difficult undertaking I've done yet on this site. This is a pairing, to make work seriously, I have to truly delve into these two characters. Their flaws, their feelings, their motives, and eventually, their growth. Until then, have some setup!**

 **Also, I won't recreate scenes from the show. I'll gloss over them. If there is a significant change, I'll show it, but otherwise, I won't.**

 **After this, I'm going over to Weiss vs. Atlas, to see if I can finish it before RWBY Volume 4 drops. It's a post Vol. 3 fic that focuses on Weiss's journey. It's not perfect, but it's something different, since it isn't focused on immediately getting the team of RWBY back together instantly. I learned a lot writing it. Like a learned a lot writing Zwei-Handlers, and I'm already learning a lot writing this.**

 **Fave! Follow! Review! Send some money to Scroll ID: 78D-91RT-69420ED! A Mistrali Prince is in need of your Support!**


	3. Friends and Allies

**A/N: I don't own RWBY. That goes to Rooster Teeth, with its conception to the late Monty Oum.**

* * *

It was the dreamless nights Emerald preferred: the ones blank and restful. Sleep all-consuming and memories all but ignored. She wondered if she even smiled a genuine smile during her rest. If that was among the few times she was truthfully happy.

She was used to the façade she created. It was necessary then and it was necessary at the moment. Yet when one pretends to be happy and cheerful and friendly day after day, the concept of actually feeling like that genuinely slips away further and further. It was in sleep where she could both be honest and content. Alone, yet self-assured.

As long as she didn't dream.

The alarm clock that Cinder programmed roused Emerald from her sleep. She limped her head to the side towards the beeping digital clock, as she rolled herself out of the covers. She rubbed her eyes, stretched her limbs and twisted her torso, bones cracking and groaning in relief and protest. She grasped her own face and snapped her neck. She lazily drew her eyelids apart, glancing at the darkened room before her.

Cinder was gone. It was normal. Emerald had never seen Cinder fall asleep or wake-up. Did she even need rest? Emerald had learned a short time into servitude it was best not to question Cinder on anything, except for what Emerald herself should do next. Neo was also absent. Also normal.

Mercury louder than the alarm's buzzing, his limbs twisted in an almost humorous pose, looking like modern art more than human. It didn't help that his robotic legs sprawled outside the confines of the mattress, looming over thin air, drooping in unnatural ways as the joints that connected metal to flesh relaxed and let the "calves" droop in a way that looked grotesque if you believed them to be real. He wasn't waking up.

Emerald, with one swift motion, kicked the frame of the bed. The mattress scrambled to life, jostling Mercury violently. Mercury's eyes swung open as he readied his fists to defend himself, but only looking intimidating for a second until he swung his head wildly looking for threats where there were none, only a smirking Emerald ogling him in his wife-beater and boxers with an overly-satisfied smirk.

"We have classes today Mercury. Get up, we don't want to miss breakfast." Emerald said simply as she pulled out her Haven uniform. Mercury grumbled incomprehensibly as he lugged his own body, sloppily making his way to his own wardrobe.

"What makes you think that breakfast will be any good? It's probably not." Mercury asked, now understandable, yet his words were not free from the weight of fatigue, each limping out of his mouth with a breathy sigh and a yawn.

"Food is sustenance Mercury. We can't afford to skip meals." Emerald pointed out, earning a groan from Mercury. "It's not good to skip breakfast than pig out when dinner comes along."

"You sound like Cinder, Em." Emerald almost felt a chill go down her spine when Mercury said that. Mercury said nothing more as he fished his own uniform out and lazily layered it over his sleepwear. Emerald walked out into the hallway towards the public bathroom, and went into the shower.

She peeled off her tank-top and lowered her pajama-bottoms and underwear. She got into the shower and let the warm water rinse over her, each drop kissing her skin with a hint of warmth. She pulled out some shampoo and let the suds flow through her hair and into her scalp. She coated herself with body-wash, making every inch of herself as clean as possible.

Like the void of sleep, the shower was one of the few places Emerald could just exist in silence. No eyes to trick, no ears to grace with appropriate words. Even more so than sleep. Interrupting someone at rest was a dick move, but interrupting someone's SHOWER, that extended beyond being rude. That was offensive, and not okay even if a straight woman did it. So there was less likely to be interruptions.

She hummed contentedly as the steam rose from the floor, the water started pooling at her feet, and she closed her eyes, letting the darkness comfort her.

Mercury may oversleep, but many a times he's brought up her own habit of taking overlong showers, often implying rather lewd things. Cinder of course would immediately silence Mercury for such crass talk, and Emerald would simply ignore it. Let Mercury imagine it all he wants… he should be thankful for the length, since it gave Mercury enough time and privacy in the room to stretch one out himself. Pots shouldn't call kettles black, especially if the specific kettle wasn't black, and the pot was literally named Black….

Emerald sighed, that was lame even for private thoughts standards.

Still, leave it to Mercury to imagine that, the hot-blooded man-whore. Emerald couldn't fathom touching herself in the shower. She needed something to touch herself about, and considering her history with….

No, memories were only slightly better than dreams. Return to the blank vapid nature of shower thoughts, where she could make lame jokes, chuckle at them, insult her comrades, and maybe even smile.

After minutes that were both long yet way too short elapsed, Emerald emerged, sighing as she was to return to the real world. She dried herself off, wrung out her hair, and courteously removed the green strands that happened upon the drain. She put on that stupid uniform, and walked out, placing a smile on her face for the world to see.

After retrieving things from the room, taking note that Mercury had already left, she made her way to the cafeteria, scouting out Mercury in the sea of badass wannabes and plopped her backpack on the stool, laying claim to the seat as she got in line for food. After retrieving the rubbery pile of pancakes, having cordial conversation with some Havenites she knew and some Beaconers that she didn't, she returned to the seat, sat down, and dug into the sad excuse for food.

"Told you it probably wasn't anything special," Mercury mentioned in between mouthfuls.

"Shut up, Merc. It's better than Haven." She returned her face to her food, as she prodded the sad firm dough with a plastic spork.

"Is it now?" Mercury objected, "it doesn't seem much better if at all to me. She doesn't seem to enjoy it either!"

 _She?_ "Mercury what are you-" Emerald turned to her left to see two green eyes slicing into her like katanas. "-OUM FUCK!" Emerald yelped as she lurched her torso back, her legs wrapping around the stool to maintain her balance on the chair.

The girl silently chuckled with her ghostly white teeth on display. Her black hair drooped lazily across her shoulders which also bore the Haven uniform. Emerald's stomach did backflips, because realizing what she was looking at did not calm her nerves. However, it did allow her to regain some composure.

"Hi Lacey, you startled me." Emerald smiled, looking around to see if her scream garnered much attention. Some people stared their way, but it didn't get the entire cafeteria's notice. Good. Besides, it wasn't compromising to show some kind of weakness to people around them, especially if the weakness wasn't true.

It was just Neo being Neo. Even in disguise.

Mercury laughed, however, slamming his fist into the table. "That…. That NEVER gets old! Ha ha! Great to have you around Lacey!"

"Lacey" nodded happily towards the silver haired assassin, her smirk never leaving her face. Emerald sighed as she reoriented herself to the table and started once again prodding at her food. She hated Neo.

The subject of her hatred continued grinning as she got to her own food, using that plastic knife like a crude scalpel, happily tearing the pancake apart. Emerald could almost imagine Neo pretending that to be someone's face or chest, and all the fun prodding and poking she'd do to a finished victim. Cinder may intimidate Emerald, but Neo TERRIFIED Emerald.

Still, she was an ally. A twisted, dark, and sadistic ally…. With an ice cream theme, of all things.

"So Lacey, have you heard?" Mercury leaned forward on the table, talking to the unresponsive girl. "Emerald here has got to make a new friend, Ozpin's orders!"

Neo raised an eyebrow and turned towards Emerald, her smile turning into a pensive frown.

"Not so much make a friend, but… 'build a connection.'" Emerald rose her hands and gave the most sarcastic air quotes she could muster. As much as she'd love to tear into this thing like the chore it was, she was still in a public space. Even if she didn't have to be the mark of a naïve giggling school girl, she should not appear so mean spirited in case people were listening, since it clashed with the image she built for herself. "Still, it may lead to something of friendship. Who knows, maybe he could be an ally or something… maybe even useful. First scheduled meeting is tonight so we'll see what happens."

Mercury snorted, "yeah, sure. That sounds about right." Neo also smiled a knowingly sardonic smile. She picked up a bottle of iced tea, and rose it to her lips, greedily guzzling it.

"So…" Mercury, refusing to let anything that annoyed her go, "….what's this guy's name again? John? Joe? Something along those lines?"

Emerald sighed, looking towards her partner "his name is Jaune Arc, some kind of-"

 _PPPFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!_

Mercury's face was suddenly obscured by a torrential spray, coating his visage with sugary liquid. He shut his eyelids out of reflex to avoid any getting into his oculi, but his face remained in shock. Emerald herself turned to face the source of the liquid assault.

Neo's eyes were wide until the pupils directed themselves to looking at the bottle. She made her gaze half-lidded at the mostly empty beverage container, made a "blech" motion with her mouth, and tossed the bottle behind her, the vessel colliding with the back of some random student's head.

It was Emerald's turn to laugh. She loudly guffawed as the indignant Mercury tried to squash his rage towards the diminutive Neo. She could feel his murderous desires from her seat across the table! However, Mercury knew it and Emerald knew it… Neo could take him in a fight. Easily.

He could do nothing but take it, like how Emerald could do nothing but take the abuse Neo frequently gave them. It was mere Schadenfreude when it was the other receiving the punishment. And it was glorious.

After Mercury wiped his face clear of the iced-tea/backwash infusion, and Emerald was done giving Neo a high-five, they finished up their breakfast with no more significant words, and made their way to class. Emerald noticed Neo glance at the ice-bucket which provided the bottles of the iced tea drink. Emerald could only imagine Neo was taking note on how to avoid the beverage from now on…. But not before stabbing ten of them or an entire vending machine ballsy enough to offer the product.

That was Neo, childish and deadly. She was simple to understand, but her mind was a place Emerald dared not fathom.

* * *

Jaune sat in Port's lecture, forcing pencil in his hand, forcing pencil to paper, and forcing paper to words. He even drank coffee that morning. He NEVER drank coffee! Yet it was necessary for this. It was necessary for him to even contemplate NOT sleeping!

Why were Port's lectures the first in the morning? Why would the most soporific of individuals be their starting trial? Was Ozpin aware of this? Was Goodwitch? Was PORT? Who knew! He just knew that if he could do this, he would be among the strongest huntsmen in the class, because Oum knew what the majority of students were doing.

Thankfully, Pyrrha was the one sitting beside him, scribbling away with a studiousness that Jaune was bewildered by. The rabid scribbling of the pencil lacked rhythm, and was loud enough to help Jaune in his goal to not fall asleep in Port's class.

For within the self-important fables of glory, there were tips and tricks to survive the most egregious of situations.

"So when the King Taijutu started multiplying, I rose my trusty axe, and knew JUST what I had to do! Since Taijutu are super-aware of their companion head's orientation, they would NEVER tie themselves up. However, that does NOT mean that they are aware of other King Taijutu's orientation. So, with nimble feet, I…"

 _King Taijutu aware of both heads, but not as aware of other King Taijutu's placement. Can tie multiples up._ Jaune quickly wrote down, satisfied he got that tidbit. After scrawling the piece of information, he returned his focus towards Port.

"BAM! Two Taijutu now are TIED-jutu, heh?" Yang laughed. Yang was awake? Or was she simply aroused by the power of pun? Pyrrha to his side groaned, and Jaune couldn't help but chuckle.

"What, Port's sense of humor not working for you?" Jaune asked, and Pyrrha turned to face him.

"He's hard enough to listen to as is, I don't need him making jokes that make it harder," Pyrrha vehemently whispered. "Also, I've heard that joke before."

"Really?" Jaune crossed his arms in his chair, "it's a really specific joke?"

"Two competitors in the Mistral regionals were called 'White Snake,' and 'Black Snake,' the fight was widely hyped. They wound up tying. And since they were both called snakes…."

"Tied-jutu, ah." Jaune nodded. "Wait, the competitors have nicknames?"

"A good majority of them do, yes. Especially one's with huge followings."

"So…. If you don't mind me asking." Jaune knew how much Pyrrha hated talking about her tournament days, but he couldn't help it, "…what was YOUR nickname?"

"Oh…." Pyrrha flushed, turning away from Jaune for a bit, the redness on her cheeks burning into him.

"I'm… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No… it's…. it's fine…" Pyrrha hushed in a stutter, before returning his gaze to meet his, "it's…. it's…. the Invincible Girl."

Jaune stared at Pyrrha as she immediately retreated her gaze to her paper, continuing to take notes. Jaune processed what Pyrrha just stated, and then chose his next words carefully.

"I… I don't find it that embarrassing."

"What?" Pyrrha looked up, her eyes confused.

"I mean, it IS rather flattering. It's not like they called you something like…."

"It's not embarrassing it's ALIENATING!" Pyrrha seethed in a whisper.

"Woah… I guess… I guess I hit a nerve?" Jaune chuckled nervously. "I didn't mean to insult you, I was just trying to-"

"I KNOW what you are trying to do, just…" Pyrrha sighed quietly, "just… never call me that, ever, okay? Not even in jest. And don't tell Ren and Nora about it."

Jaune looked across from him to Nora and Ren, their faces making contact with the desk, the sweet relief of sleep welcoming them. Ren's heavy breathing complimenting Nora's usually thunderous snores, which where placated by Nora willingly stuffing her mouth with a plushy…. How did Nora comfortably breathe? She had a nose but….

Jaune was getting off topic, he turned to Pyrrha, and he nodded, and Pyrrha gave him a soft smile. "Thank you then," she replied. "We should probably start paying attention to Port again…"

Jaune himself chuckled nervously, "oh yeah, right…" He shuffled his gaze back to Port.

"Before I was the Invincible Girl I was also called the Buxom Brutalizer." Pyrrha hurriedly added, giving a swift glance towards her leader as if to gauge his reaction.

Jaune felt hilarity burst from his chest, through his throat, and out of his mouth. He gave a shrill giggle, which awoke everyone from their slumber.

"Hmm…. Jaune, what is so funny about having to help an orphan boy out of a King Taijutu nest…. The very nest that MADE him an orphan?" All eyes turned to him, except for Pyrrha's, who shrunk back in shame. Jaune couldn't help but groan at his stroke of luck.

"Sorry sir, my mind accidentally drifted and thought of something funny and I…. laughed." _The actual contents of that laughter have nothing to do with my partner's previous nickname, which, to be honest, would apply better to Yang than to her._

"Humph," Port grunted, "well then, since you are clearly pushing endorphins through your system, surrounding yourself with positive emotions, does that mean you would like to participate in my demonstration for the day?"

"…..no?" Jaune protested weakly, producing a much more subdued yet more uniform fit of laughter across the classroom.

"Well, unfortunately the Grimm don't ask permission or question 'if you're ready.' Go to the locker room and get your stuff, this one is going to be reeeeaaal interesting."

Jaune sighed as he got up and went to the locker room, sparing a glance at Pyrrha who looked at him with the guilt palpable in her eyes. Jaune just shot her a smile and visibly shrugged it off. It was a controlled classroom demonstration. It wasn't going to be comfortable, but how _bad_ could it be?

He got his gear, and walked forward to the center of the classroom. However, unlike usual class demonstrations, there was no crate containing a beast, quivering and shaking with visible rage. Instead, it was just Port, standing right in front of him, with a shit-eating grin visible behind his massive mustache.

"You must be wondering where the cage is, Mr. Arc, but I assure you, you see it!" He continued smiling as his hands were wrapped behind his back.

"O….kay…." Jaune pulled out his sword and shield, lowering his stance as Pyrrha told him to. He could almost hear her silently cheering in the crowd, as he turned his head to look towards his team, Nora and Ren roused from sleep, giving encouraging grins and softly clapping.

He then regretfully let his eyes leave his friends as he combed around the room. The students looked confused as he did, so he was thankful this wasn't some in-joke that only he didn't know about. Even Weiss had a look of befuddlement, her beautiful features shifting into a cute…. Wait, FOCUS! There's a Grimm he had to fight, even if he couldn't see it.

 _I see the cage… but I don't… unless if I'm looking right at it…._ He turned his gaze to Port, who's hands were still behind his back. That was sign one for suspicious activity.

"Are… are _you_ the cage, Professor Port?"

"Right you are, Jaune!" He then opened his mouth wide as a horrible mass of black fog jutted out of his mouth like vomit. Jaune jumped back and yelped, his instincts demanding that he bring his shield up immediately in front of the monster.

The entire auditorium shrieked, except for Nora, who yelled, "THAT IS SO COOL!"

Jaune, his defensive stance now secure, looked over at his opponent. It was a swirling, amorphous cloud that pulsed eerily like a heart. It didn't seem to have eyes, but it did seem to have a center, the tendrils and pulses emanating from somewhere.

Before Jaune completed his quick analysis of the beast, it scuttled away and dissapaited into Port's desk chair, which then started floating. It careened towards him, and Jaune eyes widened as the object was about to collide with him. The chair rotated midair and…

It became Milo. Jaune saw that familiar short-sword preparing to make a strike. Instead of hiding behind his shield as he was wont to do, he rose his sword and met the strike.

The wooden chair, blocked the strike with its steel rollers. It trembled and clanged, but did not budge. Jaune, still imagining the chair as Milo, performed all the articulate blocks and swipes that have become semi-natural to him. He did not move gracefully or cleanly like his partner or anyone else in the school, but it sufficed.

The chair suddenly fell to the ground as the mass black tendrils escaped the vessel. It jutted upwards into a light fixture, which then promptly detached from the ceiling, falling towards Jaune.

Jaune rolled out of the way, hearing the crash from behind him. He whipped his head around to see that the monster was gone… or at least he couldn't see it.

He steadied his shield, and prepared his sword to strike at the sudden flinch of anything. He stepped back, his breath the only audible thing to him. His footsteps even silent as he tried to avoid leaving himself vulnerable.

His shield twitched.

His arm didn't have a twitch. He looked at it thoughtfully at his shield until it jerked backwards, ramming into him.

Thankfully, his stance was wide and lower to the ground, making him simply move backwards rather than fall onto his ass. He let go of his shield and simply wielded his sword. The shield started levitating from the ground, eerily bobbing up and down as if trying to position itself midair.

"Oh hoh! How interesting! The beast now uses your OWN weapons against you!" Port bellowed behind him, clearly amused.

"Good thing I have two," Jaune muttered as he rose Crocea Mors and struck down at his own shield. It clattered on the ground, as the mass of blackish tendrils fled from the weapon. Jaune picked it back up, but his gaze never left the bizarre blob. He saw it starting to scuttle away… towards the crowd of unarmed students.

It was when Weiss's eyes widened in terror as it started scuttling towards her that Jaune felt the press of action. He ran forward, leaped up, and stabbed the beast at its supposed center.

There was a wail that sounded like a chainsaw cleaving through a live cow, and the beast turned into smoke… well… more like smoke than it was before.

There was silence before it was met with respectful applause, except from the top row.

"WOOOOO JAUNE! YOU STAB THAT WEIRD MASS OF GOO! YEAH!" Nora screamed over Pyrrha's thunderous applause and Ren's muted thumbs up. Jaune chuckled.

"That, Jaune, and class, is called a Lingerer. It may look like a gooey cloud of smoke, but it's much more dangerous than a gooey cloud of smoke."

"Dangerous enough to hide one in your mouth?" Jaune turned to see Weiss object, her eyes still wide with discomfort.

"Well, I can hold my breath for a long time…." Port chuckled.

"You were TALKING!"

"As I was saying," Port sidelined Weiss, the heiress resisting only with a huff, "Lingerers can possess an object and stay within it for an indefinite period of time. Larger and older ones can possess much larger objects, such as vehicles and suits of armor, and sometimes even possess a person, taking full control of him or her… someone you could trust could very dangerous, without even knowing it, and, sometimes…." Port's voice lowered, "…people who seem trustworthy that you just met could be a death trap, waiting for you." He then stood upright, "thankfully, Lingerer's are very rare, you only find them in some of the deepest parts of the Grimmlands. It certainly took a lot of effort to find one and bring it here for you to experience!"

Jaune sighed, "thanks. I appreciate it…"

"You're welcome!" Port replied, with no trace of irony. "Now that concludes today's class. Remember, Lingerers are rare…. But that doesn't mean they don't exist, especially in a metaphorical sense. Good-bye! Only trust yourself!"

Jaune looked at Port with a look of mild disgust, "THAT'S your parting words of wisdom?"

"I like ending class on a light note of some dark humor my boy!" Port chuckled, in spite of Jaune's look of confusion. "Don't let it get to you! Most people are trustworthy! Remember that when you meet your new friend from outside the kingdom tonight! I'm running the workshop!"

Jaune groaned, he almost forgot about that. He still didn't know what he was going to say to Emerald. Sorry for the bad first impression? Sorry for being paired up with me? Sorry for mixing up your academy with Shade… apparently they are rivals? There were so many things to be apologetic for, yet he couldn't find a good way to say it without making himself look bad.

Oh who was he kidding? He was going to make himself look bad regardless.

He left the classroom and joined up with his team-mates. He greeted them when Nora splashed upon him with a hug.

"Ohmigosh Jaune! That was awesome!" Nora beamed, "like…. That was some horror movie stuff and you just stood your ground, dealt with the punches and then killed it!"

"It wasn't that impressive," Jaune shrugged it off. "Once you knew what it was it wasn't that hard of a fight. It was just a black blob."

"It was still very impressive Jaune," Pyrrha put a hand on Jaune's shoulder shyly, giving a small smile along with it.

"I think that was the point." Ren suddenly added, as if talking to no one. Nora crossed her arms and relaxed her hips towards a side.

"What was the point?"

"Once you knew what you're facing, it's rather easy. It's when you don't know a Lingerer is there that it's more dangerous. Otherwise, it's an easier-than-average Grimm to face." Ren shrugged, "that's what I took out of it. The enemy you know is less dangerous than the enemy you don't."

"You read too much into things Ren, Port just wanted to projectile vomit a Grimm… which I am SO asking him later how he did that!" Nora beamed at the concept of all the pranks she could perform with that little trick.

Jaune laughed, "I'll be sure to ask him. He's hosting the first Cross-Kingdom Program workshop tonight so I'll be…. Seeing…" Jaune's eyes widened. He realized what he was just saying….

"Jaune…" Pyrrha looked at her partner with concern. "Jaune, are you okay?"

 _Not only do I have to spend my morning struggling to stay awake to Port… I got to do the same thing late at night!_

"AW C'MON!" Jaune screamed as he collapsed to his knees, burying his face into his hands. If he learned anything from Nora, being melodramatic helped make the pain less noticeable to himself… just not to the others around him.

* * *

Ozpin was at his desk, sipping coffee and tapping his pencil.

"I realized, I thought through all the things that could help, all the activities that could draw out insidious activity in relative safety…" he then slouched into his chair, "…but I failed to think of this important detail."

Glynda, sitting opposite from him, groaned. "Not knowing a good name for this 'program' you recently made up is not as much a shortcoming as you think it is…"

"I can't use Cross-Kingdom Partners because they already have partners. 'Friends' doesn't work because it sounds so childlike a program made for grade-school kids, not trained killers. 'Buddies' is even worse."

"The Cross Kingdom Alliance Program is a perfectly suitable name." Glynda proposed, but Ozpin scoffed it off.

"Then what are they supposed to call each other, 'allegiants?'" Ozpin groaned into his hands, pencil still grasped between fingers, twitching underneath the movement of his joints.

Glynda had enough. "Maybe."

Ozpin stood up, and walked across the room towards the window, overlooking the school. He sipped his coffee. He twirled the pencil. He turned around and put the pencil on the desk, and reached over for his cane. He stomped his cane on the ground in mild annoyance.

Glynda respected Ozpin so much, but his occasional OCD about "plans" were tiring, to the point it ate him up that he didn't have a cute name for the program he constructed to try to get the fake exchange students to reveal themselves.

"Allies." Ozpin suddenly said, snapping his fingers. "Cross Kingdom Ally Program. They will call each other 'allies!'"

"That's just the same as alliance but with less syllables!"

"Exactly! That makes it seem more casual!"

"You…. are aware that you made this program to reveal dangerous criminals, right?" Glynda laid back in her chair, forcing herself to relax.

"Well, let's be honest, there will only be ONE match of dangerous criminals, the rest could possibly do the good that we used to justify its existence to everyone else!"

"Ozpin…. I…." Glynda sighed, she got up, and walked towards the elevator. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night Glynda. Sleep well." Ozpin's face, while barely changing, shifted to a look of being pleased with oneself.

* * *

Emerald left the room and casually gave a farewell glance to Mercury and Cinder, who had decided to return to their room. She was going to that silly cross-kingdom union thing that Ozpin clearly made to sniff them out. Cinder wasn't an idiot.

Mercury then got off of his bed. "Welp, I got some places to be myself. Have a good night Cinder!"

"Stop!" Cinder quietly demanded, making the silver-haired boy stop immediately. Cinder shifted his gaze towards his, giving a firm scowl to remind him that she was serious before she asked such a frivolous sounding question.

"Are you going out to be with a girl?" Cinder asked, raising her eyebrow, and crossing her legs. Mercury visibly sweated, and started choking mildly on his own throat. Cinder smiled, indicating she understood that as a yes.

She stood up, and walked slowly towards the assassin. "Make sure to not take off your pants fully. You understand?" She pointed a finger at Mercury's chest.

"Yes ma'am, can't let anyone see my legs." He looked down, and Cinder looked down as well. The metallic marvels, their ace in the hole, their first strong strike at the Vytal Festival would be made by those legs, not literally, but they would indeed be important.

It would be unfortunate for such a surprise to be ruined by Mercury's boyish antics.

"Good, as long as you understand. Run along." Cinder would make sure to listen to girl gossip, if any of them ever mention "metal legs," well….

Cinder liked to imagine she wouldn't have to resort to such methods, as satisfying as they may be.

Just as Cinder trusted Mercury not to reveal his legs, she trusted Emerald to not reveal anything about their goals to her so-called "friend from Beacon." She was supposed to get close to the students at Beacon anyway, but Cinder had to admit, this was a little too close for comfort, and mandated by the school itself.

It was so visibly a ploy by Ozpin to possibly capitalize on a mistake she had yet to make. A mistake that would possibly be goaded by forced interaction outside of their close-knit circle of conspirators.

No matter. She trusted Emerald. Not fully, but mostly. Emerald had been nothing but loyal to her, and her palpable respect and fear towards her was not only to be enjoyed but to be recognized. She wouldn't willingly reveal anything about them, or exposing them, and her skillset safeguarded her doing such things accidentally as well.

Still, she should keep an eye on him. Just as she must watch out for Mercury's escapades. And Torchwick's shenanigans. And Adam's desires. And Emerald's relationship with this…. Jaune Arc.

She should watch Jaune Arc as well.

* * *

Jaune Arc groaned, another long day of classes, to be closed off by a potentially awkward interaction with yet another attractive girl seeking the huntress profession. This was his life. And it was to be presided over by Port. That man.

 _Forgive me if I am not too thrilled for this._ He sighed as he walked down the hallway towards Port's lecture hall. His shoes dragged along the fine marble as he tried to hype himself up, rather than focus on how much homework he'd have to do and how harsh Pyrrha's training might be afterwards.

"Hey lady-killer! How's it goin'?" Jaune relaxed slightly as the voice behind him turned out to be Yang. "Ready for the meet-and-greet?" She bounced up alongside him, grinning ear to ear as she confidently strode the way only Yang could.

"You realize that Port is the one hosting it, right?" Jaune reminded that caused Yang to slouch over, and she let out a groan.

"Don't remind me, hopefully his involvement is minor…." Yang then stood up, returning to her usual strut. "So… who are YOU partnered with? Do you know? All I know is the name. Flynt Coal."

"Emerald Sustrai, I've met her before, but only in passing…"

"Oooh a _her_! Was she pretty?" Yang leaned in, wiggling her eyebrows, her teasing face ever present as Jaune just dealt with it.

"What do you think?" Jaune retorted, making his eyes meet Yang's. It always made him feel awkward, making eye contact made him uncomfortable, but with Pyrrha's piercing gaze and Nora's eyes crowding anything in view, he was getting used to it, and forced himself to get used to it.

Yang laughed, "fair enough, we are all bombshells…. Most of all me of course!" She winked. "Still, any other details. I know NOTHING of my… partner? Friend?... Buddy? What are we going to call each other?..."

"I'm sure Ozpin will think of something, considering that he thinks of team names for all of us." Jaune observed, with Yang giving a thoughtful nod. "All I know is that Emerald is from Haven. That's it, we didn't talk much it was more like we bumped into each other."

"Hah!" Yang snorted, "tell me it wasn't like how you bumped into me the first time we met!"

Jaune felt a blush consume his face, "you know, I was trying my hardest, and…."

"Motion sickness is more common than you realize…" Yang finished in a mocking tone, before finishing it with a smile. "I'm just teasing you jeez! At least you didn't blow anything up like my sister did…"

Jaune smiled, "yeah, maybe you're right." They continued walking together, Yang's presence clearly over-shining him as they moved through the hallway.

"Hey, wait up!" A voice that brimmed with energy suddenly slammed alongside him. Jaune looked to his left to see a blond haired boy, vest unbuttoned, showcasing abdominals that would make the average woman swoon. Jaune had seen it all before… from Ren alone. That dude was toned underneath his robe.

"Oh… it's… uh…. Blake's new friend… Sun? Right?" Yang pointed at the man who smiled brightly.

"Sun Wukong at your service," he bowed mockingly, revealing the expressive tail of a faunus as it wildly spiraled and twisted. He then ended the bow by leaping into the air in a flip, and landed on his two feet. "And your name is like…. Bang?" He pointed towards the Buxom Brutalizer… yup, that nickname made more sense with her. Not that Pyrrha wasn't buxom… she just wasn't a brutalizer and…. he just thought of his partner's breasts. And Yang's breasts.

As Dad said, _you can let the mind wander as long as you don't let your eyes or hands do the same._

"Yang," she corrected, "and this is Jaune. He's harmless." _Gee, thanks Yang._

"Nice to meet you!" Sun extended his fist, which Jaune timidly met with a fist of his own. Sun looked down at the exchange with a frown. "Yup, definitely harmless." Jaune groaned as he slouched back into his lackadaisical walk, "Still, if RWBY thinks your cool, than your cool with me!" He then took his place at Jaune's other side, walking less grandiosely like Yang but with a more relaxed air to him.

"So… I heard my… guy was from Beacon. Yatsuhashi Daichi, do you know him?" Sun turned to both Yang and Jaune, who both nodded.

"He's a quiet, stoic warrior type, from what I gather." Jaune responded. "At worst he's humorless, but at best he seems like a good friend to have."

"Ah…" Sun crossed his arms over his protruding pecs, "…like if Sage and Blake had a baby…. I could work with that." He smiled happily as he skipped forward.

"Maybe for that info you could help Jaune," Yang leaned her head in to face Sun, "she's from Haven, correct?" Jaune nodded.

"Emerald Sustrai, I believe." Jaune remarked, making Sun's eyes widen as he got a… confused look on his face.

"You got Emerald! Wow! Wow! I mean… I…." Sun started scratching the back of his head as he seemed to look Jaune up and down. "I have no idea whether I should feel happy for you or bad for you….."

"Well, I mean…. Uh….. what does that mean?" Jaune slowed his walk as Yang seemed to watch in rapt curiousity.

"Well… I mean, the pros are: she's really, really hot." Sun then rose his hands in a 'back off' stance, waving his hands, "I mean, she's not my type, but she is really good to look at. Also, she's really nice, like I've never seen her act mean towards another person outside of combat, which she's pretty awesome at…"

 _Oh great, ANOTHER girl who's going to kick my ass fifty different ways._

"It's just… she's… well, maybe nice isn't the way to describe her at all." Sun started stroking her chin, "she's… friendly. That's it, she's friendly, but that doesn't mean she's nice, you know what I mean?"

"Not really," Yang walked ahead of them before turning around and walking backwards, her hips still swaying with confidence despite literally not seeing where she was going.

Sun continued to stroke his chin, as if trying to solve a puzzle. "It's like she says kind words to you, and it sounds like she means it, but she says that to everyone. So… to me at least… she seems like the person that probably has a lot to say, but doesn't say it."

"You're saying she's being kind to everyone to avoid conflict." Yang stipulated.

"Yes! That's it!" Sun pointed at Yang, "she sounds genuine, but it's so common and so ubiquitous it CAN'T all be genuine, which is what makes it…. Nerve-inducing? Who knows? Maybe I'm paranoid." Sun lagged behind slightly to slap Jaune on the back. "It's probably me overanalyzing the situation, I don't know Emerald that well personally….. then again… no one does… hm….." Jaune gulped.

"Also," Sun spoke up once more, "her team is really weird. Their leader, Cinder, seems alright and lax, but… I dunno. Lacey is barely around, and when she is I don't think I've ever heard her say a word. Now Emerald's partner, Mercury…" Sun started laughing, "…is the cockiest piece of shit I've ever met, and that's coming from a cocky piece of shit myself…. Pardon my Vacuosi." Sun smiled.

"Yay… can't wait." Jaune once more felt overwhelmed as they reached Port's lecture hall.

The seats were all labeled with a name, and it didn't take a genius what that meant: assigned seating, more than likely next to your new… partner? Jaune looked up at the banner, which, due to the standard black font on a white background, was clearly rushed, as if it was made thirty minutes ago.

 **Cross-Kingdom Alliance Program**

 **Meet Your Ally Day!**

Okay then, "allies." Jaune could roll with that.

Jaune walked across the hallway until he saw her. Indeed, Emerald Sustrai was already there, looking off to the ceiling, thinking thoughts that Jaune couldn't decipher. She had a small smile on her lips, teeth invisible but there was a softness to it. Her red eyes peered into the void above them, she couldn't possibly be studying the dull banner. Jaune coughed slightly, causing Emerald's head to turn, and the unchanging smile to greet him.

She wasn't in the Haven uniform anymore. She was wearing skin tight pants and what could only be described as a slightly more covering bikini top with a flourishing collar that wrapped around her neck and inner shoulders. Her midriff was fully exposed, and her cleavage was fully pronounced: Emerald showed off enough skin that Yang could blush…. _Okay that was a bit much_ … that Pyrrha would blush…. Yes.

Still, flattering outfit being flattering outfit, Jaune had gotten as used to it as possible. He lived with two girls in the same room dammit, and one had ABSOLUTELY no shame.

"So… who would've thought WE'D be….. 'allied' up, huh?" Jaune nervously greeted, smiling before gesturing if he was allowed to sit down. Emerald continued smiling and patted down on the chair next to her.

"It's not too uncommon a chance encounter expands into something else." Emerald said, sounding like she meant it. Jaune nodded and took the chair, sitting next to the tan woman whose red eyes were unobtrusive. She made eye contact, but it was faint, constantly shifting away to look at something, or for something.

"So… uh…. what do you think they'll have us do first?" Jaune had long given up on faking confidence, he normally just acted like a doofus when he tried. With the exception of Weiss, where his hormones just kick into overdrive and he ignores the life lessons he gained throughout the last couple of months. "Hopefully nothing too strenuous, because… well…"

"Hey, Jaune." Emerald patted Jaune's hand before retreating her own hand back to her lap, Jaune's face returned to Emerald's. "Don't be so worried. We're probably just going to learn more about each other…. Here," she shifted her position on the chair, so that her body faced his, "Let's start with an ice breaker. I'm Emerald Sustrai. I'm a first year at Haven. My weapons are called Verdant Stalkers. I'm a member of Team CMLE. My partner is Mercury Black. And…. a fun fact about me is… I am such a Spruce Willis junkie." Emerald giggled. "I don't know why, it's so dumb, but those movies are just such great escapism y'know!" She giggled again.

Jaune stared at Emerald, mouth gaping. That was sudden and quite a deluge of information, with only Ruby and Nora rivaling that of suddenly dumping information on him. Regardless, it seemed reasonable, considering that they had just met and are expected to work together for… something.

"Uh… sure. I'm Jaune Arc. A first year at Beacon. My weapon is called Crocea Mors. I'm the leader of Team JNPR…."

"Wait…" the smile faltered slightly before returning to where it once was, "you're the LEADER of your team?"

"Yeah… I can't believe it myself." The words just left Jaune's mouth before he could grab them back, so instead he mentally hit himself. ' _I can't believe it myself?' There's giving up on being overly confident and there is deprecating yourself in front of a stranger for no reason! Well, just shrug it off,_ "anyway, my partner is-"

"WELCOME EVERYONE!" Port's voice boomed to the entire room, distracting Emerald and Jaune from each other, which came as a relief to Jaune. Emerald seemed welcoming and friendly, but he couldn't shake what Sun said about her, about her being nice to everyone all the time, so it couldn't all be genuine.

Didn't mean that she WASN'T genuine now, but it did niggle at the back of his head. He felt like he had to be cautious with this woman… but why? Even if she was deceptive towards people in terms of being nice, it didn't mean she was someone who would kill him in his sleep! She was training to be a huntress! Just like how he was here to train to be a huntsman…. _Relax, Jaune! It's just nerves getting at you again. She's just trying to be nice and possibly make it easy for you. Simple ice-breakers, it's done everywhere._

"I hope you've at least had a couple words with your new ally tonight! Because your first assignment is going to be given right away!"

There were murmurings in the crowd, though Emerald stayed silent. So did Jaune.

"You're first assignment…. Is….."

Jaune could hear the people leaning in their chairs, awaiting Port's words with anticipation… probably for the first time in their school career.

"….a cooperative written report of the different species of Grimm between your kingdoms, their similarities and differences. You'll be graded on the clear amount of effort you put into it. That is all."

Jaune felt many slouch in their chairs, groaning in frustration. But Jaune couldn't be happier. _It wasn't something dangerous!_ He looked at Emerald, who returned his gaze with a smile.

She was almost always smiling…. Why?

* * *

 **A/N: Naturally we can't expect Emerald and Jaune to have any form of bonding and connection now. Emerald is performing a façade and Jaune is a bit nervous.**

 **Also, this will be a very character driven story. There will be set-pieces, plot-arcs, and the like, but this story focuses more on what the characters are feeling and becoming, rather than what is happening.**

 **That said, I will warn you that this is not an OC free story. That also being said, they will NOT become major influences at the plot at large… there won't be some student from Beacon who knows that Emerald is a bad guy, but sees that if she gets with Jaune, Emerald could be redeemed. It won't be self-insert type or move-along-the-ship types. As a small preview, the so far only major OC planned at the moment is an associate of Torchwick's crime dealings before he worked for Cinder. He fills an antagonistic role.**

 **Also, Character Arcs. Planned character growth will not only include Jaune and Emerald, but Pyrrha, Yang, (maybe) Weiss, and Neo.**

 **Fave! Follow! Review! Kill the OBVIOUS METAPHOR GRIMM! Before he beats you over the head with his meaning!**


	4. Questions and Investigations

**A/N: I don't own RWBY. That goes to Rooster Teeth, with its conception to the late Monty Oum.**

* * *

The fat oaf was blathering on about how this program was one of the best ideas that Ozpin had ever made during his tenure at Beacon, and that he was more than eager to help the idea along. He wrapped his hands around his back and rocked back and forth on his feet, his mustache moving slightly and his squinty eyes bouncing minutely on his face as he went on and on and on…. Was he literally saying "blah?" Emerald prided herself on her ability to listen carefully…. Was she losing her touch?

Or maybe she didn't care enough, because apparently Jaune Arc was the fucking _leader_ of his team! Were his team-mates nincompoops? There would be a total of three people in this school that Ozpin would judge, "yes, these people would benefit from _him_ running things!"

Okay… she was over-reacting. First impressions weren't inaccurate, but they were incomplete. Yes, he mixed up Shade and Haven. Yes, the man stuttered more than a scratched CD. He oozed confidence the same way Neo oozed words. But who knows? Maybe he is some god-like combatant, his skills matched only by the other legends in his class like Pyrrha Nikos? Maybe his semblance was ridiculous? Maybe he was incredibly smart academically and tactically? There were a lot of things Emerald did not know about Jaune Arc, she just learned he was the team leader.

Clearly he was more than met the eye. Maybe he was super observant….

She swiped his wallet with no effort as the boy seemed to be legitimately trying to pay attention to Port.

Nope, he wasn't super observant. He was at most average in that regard; she didn't put much effort in that one.

She put the wallet back. He didn't have any money anyway.

"…now I understand that you are all just antsy to get started on your assignment, but before we work, we should play! Eh?" Emerald diverted her attention back to Port, who know had unclasped his hands and expanded them wide, spread-eagle. "Who's ready for some…" he jumped up into the air, shifting his chunky body into a variety of flamboyant poses mid-air.

"…EXTREME…" he flexed his arms downwards.

"…ICE…" he spread his legs and arms outwards, forming an "X."

"…BREAKERS!" He raised two fists in the air, landed on his legs into a kneel.

There was a silence that not even crickets dared break. Emerald sighed internally, feeling even her heavily structured smile starting to falter.

"…do they really have to be 'extreme?'" Jaune's voice whined into the abyssal quiet. Emerald almost winced at the intrusion, and didn't enjoy the laughter that followed. Laughter directed at the person sitting next to her. Laughter practically facing her.

"Ho ho ho!" Port laughed as well, "don't worry, Glynda has already vetted and rejected a majority of my ideas!" The laughter stopped almost as quickly as it started, and silence returned. Emerald eyed Jaune as he slouched back into his chair, breathing quietly in supposed relief. She wanted to grab his collar, drag his ear right next to her mouth, and whisper as harshly as she could " _don't draw attention to yourself!"_

But she didn't. Instead she lightly patted Jaune's shoulder in "support." Jaune looked at her with a curious glance, which she responded with sheepishly raising her thumb up, and finished it off with a shrug.

"Anyway, every great relationship is built upon a foundation of trust. So, I want to help start these relationships by proving to all of you that you can all trust one another." Port looked around the room, smile permeating through his facial hair. _This is so hokey,_ Emerald lamented as he continued looking across them all, trying to make the silence dramatic, but it was instead just… stupid.

"I personally pitched the concept of having one person blindfolded while the other person had both their limbs securely bound, and then release a Grimm, but that was unfortunately shot down, something about _pointless_ endangerment." Port seemed annoyed but Emerald was actually thankful for _that_ being shut down. She would've HATED it if her eyes were bound shut.

"So… we're going to the most archaic trust exercise in the book, trust falls! As shown by myself and my good friend Bartholomew Oobleck!" The door to the lecture hall suddenly burst open as a whizzing blur rushed into the room, and a tall, green haired man stood where the blur had stopped. Emerald recognized him: she had a class with the weirdo today. And he REEKED of coffee then, and he reeked of it now.

"Trust falls are so simplistic and surface level, that it's the PERFECT start of your new relationships that will require you to work together of negotiating times to meet, cooperate, converse, and rely upon to complete a variety of assignments in the classroom and eventually on the field!" Oobleck talked rabidly, every word exceedingly efficient in escaping his quickly shifting lips. "For those unfamiliar, all you have to do is turn your back to your partner like so," Oobleck turned his back towards Port, "close your eyes, and lean back enough for you to lose balance and risk collision with the floor, only then," Oolbleck crossed his arms and started to fall, but naturally got caught in the bear-like embrace of Port, "to of course be caught by your partner. It's rather rudimentary."

"Which is why we added even MORE bonding material!" Port boomed, and Emerald slowly felt her heart starting to sink. This was her life. It wasn't rock bottom, she escaped that, but for some reason being up near the top didn't improve things that much, only less hunger and a more comfy bed.

Also the showers were nice.

"Indeed, underneath your chairs you'll find questionnaires," Oobleck followed up as the lecture hall shuffled as people kneeled down to pull out whatever Port and Oobleck had prepared for them. Emerald and Jaune themselves joined in, pulling out a simple, single-sided sheet of paper, with a list of black-font questions placed in an orderly column, and properly numbered. "These questions are nothing too personal, but not shallow, middling things like 'favorite color.' Because, let's be honest, with our names signifying colors, that question is usually answered with the color our name is associated with."

"The catcher will ask these questions, the faller will answer them. It's symbolic synergy!" Port sounded incredibly proud for formulating this exercise. If only Emerald could just stand up, declare it stupid, walk out the door, and never speak of this moment again.

"Um…. Why are we doing this?" Thankfully it wasn't Jaune this time, but Sun Wukong, a half-shirtless monkey faunus who put more effort towards his abs than his brain. "I mean… I don't know how you guys in Beacon do things, but we didn't do anything like this with our own TEAMS!"

"Simple my boy!" Port bellowed proudly. "You bonded with your teams during initiation, face to face with the terrors of moderate Grimm that force you to bond. Since Glynda and Ozpin have discouraged us from using similar tactics, simple ice-breaking is what we must do." He continued smiling like a beaming, insufferably hot, sun.

"But… trust falls?" Sun sounded more nervous than Jaune, as the faunus motioned to the giant man that was sitting next to him, fully coated in oriental armor.

"I will fall softly." The giant stated quietly.

"The laws of gravity tend to disagree…" Sun mumbled as he sat back down, Port chuckling all the while.

"Then truly this test is much more physically strenuous than I thought, also, GENTLEMEN!" Port's voice somehow extended its volume to even further heights of loudness. "Keep your hands under control…"

Emerald caught Jaune blushing and groaning into his hands. Good. He's terrified to even try such a thing, if he ever…

 _Y'know, if she grows up to has your frame, I could's make her a star in my bussiness!_

Nope! Emerald shut that door in her mind faster than she could even fathom what she just recalled.

"Same applies to the women as well, we do not want to have any unwelcome contact on the first day of this program." Oobleck added. The entire class nodded and chuckled with mild embarrassment, which Emerald could only scoff at. What children, how little they've experienced or known. "You may commence, I assure you there is enough space for all of you to perform this exercise."

Emerald stood up, and turned to face her "ally," Jaune. He also stood up, stretching his back, clearly stalling for time rather than relieving himself of stiffness. Emerald didn't groan but smiled a faint smile, a subtle facial gesture of acceptance.

 _To perform a lie, the body language must match._

"So Jaune, since I started at first, do you mind that I ask the first question and you fall first?" Emerald asked innocently enough. Honestly she wanted Jaune to answer each question first, so that she could calculate her own answer based off of his: first move disadvantage.

"Oh… uh…. sure Emerald, I guess I should…" Jaune turned his back towards her, shifting his position to concisely line up with where she was standing. He looked up to the ceiling and closed his eyes. "I guess you should ask the first question?"

Emerald pulled the sheet to her eyes before returning them to the guy she had to catch. "What do you like to do outside of class and outside of training?" Jaune stiffened and relaxed, as if he was trying to decide something.

"Wait… do I fall first or answer first?"

"I ask the questions!" Emerald basted her words with as much friendly sarcasm as she could muster, "just…. I guess the question is would you rather answer them standing upright or lying in my arms." That came out more coquettish than she was hoping for. She wasn't trying to seduce the guy… Hopefully, from what she'd observed, the man was too nervous to "accept" her "offer."

Jaune coughed violently. "Oh, well then… I… I like to watch movies and read comics. I also like practicing guitar." He leaned back and started to fall.

Emerald lined her body up and caught the man with her palms outstretched onto his back, and making sure nothing else touched. She pushed gently, returning the blonde boy to a standing position. He turned around, still seeming embarrassed, but he wasn't blushing like a cartoon character or anything.

"Your turn, I guess?" Emerald smiled but she groaned horrendously in her head. She turned around and closed her eyes.

She couldn't see. In the shower it was fine; it was a small enclosed space with only one exposed side covered by a curtain. In bed she was surrounded by sheets and fatigue. Here she was, in a room full of people, full of dangerous people, full of people she was conspiring against, and her eyes were closed as to not see them. Not to observe and react to them. Not even to trick them, as her eyes must be focused for her semblance to work.

"So… what do YOU do outside of classes and outside of training?" Emerald almost jumped at a question she was expecting. She couldn't let it show: never let such things show.

"Well… I already mentioned my love of Spruce Willis films, so I like watching movies…. And…." _think, people don't just watch movies,_ "….I sometimes pick my hand at theatre! The art of acting intrigues me, even though I've found a higher calling!" She then tried to fall.

Emerald found her feet locked in place, unwilling to shift her weight behind her. _C'mon, this isn't a dangerous situation. It's just some lame trust exercise!_ She slowly teetered, her back slowly starting to slant, but…

"Y'know, if you don't want to, we could just…. Talk. Maybe just ask-OOF!" Emerald fell, landing Jaune's arms, his hands wrapping near her midriff, but being careful not to hold harshly or grope. Her back was connected to his breastplate, and Emerald could feel the back of her head near his shoulder.

It was only for a moment, as Emerald was clumsily, but effectively, pushed back up. Emerald graciously let her feet run parallel to the ground as she turned around to see Jaune scratching the back of his head.

"If you don't feel comfortable falling for every single question, that is fine." Emerald continued keeping her mouth upright as Jaune looked confused. "We've done it once, we don't have to do it again. And it looks like the professors are not entirely focused on us." Emerald turned to see Port and Oobleck partaking in, of all things, a ferocious war of thumbs.

"But I wasn't…." Jaune sighed, "…never mind." He motioned to the seats, "would you like to sit back down?" Emerald nodded as the two retreated to the comfort of the chairs. She crossed her legs and returned her eyes to the paper, looking at the page once more.

"Are you….. wait are you serious?" Emerald let her act fall for just a moment just out of the sheer surprise, "….are you single? And don't answer with 'married to my work.' _"_ Emerald said that last part with such confused revulsion, each word falling down and splatting on the ground in unflattering fashion.

"I honestly am not that surprised Port and Oobleck think that's a good ice breaker question," Jaune laughed. "Yes, I'm single, yet not so good at mingling, as you can probably see." Jaune chuckled, but Emerald was too focused on the question. It was a horribly stupid question, but... it made sense.

"Neither am I," Emerald responded, "but I'm not looking for anyone at the moment. I guess I would be 'married to my work.'" It was a question that defined boundaries. It defined how one would spend their time (Emerald had a feeling _healthy_ relationships took time and work). It defined who she would potentially have to hurt to get him to talk…. They probably didn't intend the latter as usable information.

"Oh! Well… good for you, I guess. I mean I'm looking at someone, but I just can't…." _I am not in the mood for this._

"Let's move on to the next question." Emerald suggested, "it's clearly an uncomfortable subject for you." She smiled as she looked to the next on the list. "What kind of relationship do you have with your family/direct relatives?" Emerald swallowed hard, not entirely sure how to answer that. All concern however, was replaced with confusion when her ears picked up laughter from Jaune, who had practically slouched his entire body across the chair as he chuckled at the ceiling. "Uh… Jaune?"

"Where do I start?" Jaune said, a goofy smile not leaving his face. "I love my family, they're great! But… um…." Jaune rubbed his temples, "we didn't leave on the best terms, at least with my parents, but… uh…. it's complicated, I guess." One of the hands shifted from his temple to the back of his head, scratching it aggressively. "It can only be complicated when you have seven sisters, to be fair."

Emerald smiled and nodded. _Seven sisters. Wow._ Jaune's parents were still married and they had eight kids? Talk about commitment, she almost respected them.

"My family is nowhere near that large." Emerald responded, "just me and my mom…"

 _"Your father… it's best you don't meet your father sweetie."_

"…and that's it." Emerald continued holding that smile, despite Jaune looking with a visible gaze of concern. "Nothing to worry about, it is what it is and that's all there is to it!" _A lie is best when there's small amounts of truth sprinkled in, to make it plausible with the facts._

"Oh… well… I guess if you came out okay…" Jaune shrugged, "…then there's nothing that needs further probing!"

"Indeed," the smile was genuine this time. _Thank you Jaune for cooperating._

They continued asking each other questions from the sheet. Emerald was almost thankful for the set questions. It was a plan and routine, specially designed by huntsman professors to allow there to be a connection between two people who have either never met or barely met. She could read the question and conjure a reply, as well as listen to Jaune's response beforehand.

From the ordeal with the questionnaire, she learned a couple things about the nincompoop. Due to the seven sisters, he knew how to dance. The trait he valued most about himself was his perseverance and determination in the face of failure. His favorite movie was _The Shadow Guardian_ and his favorite book was the _Larry Kettler_ series: all of them, he liked them because he loved a well written underdog-with-a-destiny story.

As for what he learned from her, it was what she told everyone.

"Okay, last question, why did you become a huntsman/huntress?" Emerald was ready to hear the regular rigmarole of "wanting to help people, to be a hero, to…"

"I want to become more."

Emerald stared blankly, "more… what?"

"If I'm being honest, I guess I'm…. I just want to be more than what I think of myself, and if I get to help people doing that, that's great ,but…. I am all but aware that, for me, this is a quest of self-fufillment…" Jaune scoffed at nothing, as Emerald's head buzzed at reading something incorrectly, "I want to help people, but there are many ways to do that outside of being a huntsman. I guess I just want myself to become more than what I was before and what I am now." Jaune looked off into the auditorium, the chatter and prattle of the teenagers unending but now not obnoxious, just more background filler than anything.

Jaune turned to face her, and his face suddenly shifted to beet red. "I'm sorry! Didn't mean to… undermine what your reasoning is or…. Getting to heavy… I didn't mean…

"No, it's fine. Thank you for your honesty." Emerald didn't need to fake those words. "As for me, I guess, it's what I'm good at, so I'm doing it. Rather lame myself, actually."

"Better than my excuse…" Jaune laughed. "Whatever, so does that mark the end of the list?"

"I think so." Emerald said with relief, the ordeal would soon be over.

"So… when should we meet to work on this assignment?" Jaune reminded Emerald that it wasn't really over soon.

"How about tomorrow night?"

"Can we make it tomorrow evening, I normally have nightly training sessions with my partner."

"Oh, being a good leader helping train your team?"

Jaune scoffed, "not really. I'm certainly not qualified to train Pyrrha, but she can certainly teach me a thing or two."

Emerald laughed along, until her head just registered what he just said.

 _Pyrrha Nikos, the champion, is his PARTNER?_

* * *

Nora jumped along with the tiny man in the upper corner of the screen when the animatronic leaped across the screen, followed by static. Afterwards, she softly chuckled at the expense of the poor man, who recoiled and recovered, but was punished by still having to play, and replaying the entire section he worked so hard to progress in. Nora loved watching these, but she herself admitted she would never want to play the games presented…. Unless Ren sat REALLY close to her, of course.

When the video ended and before autoplay started the next one, Nora looked up to see business as usual. Pyrrha was obsessing over how straight her armor was, and how shiny and clean her weapons were. Ren was in bed, reading a book about something that was went over in class. She'll ask him to explain it to her later. It wasn't that she didn't value her education, it's just Ren explained it better than any of those boring professors ever could.

She turned her attention back to Pyrrha, who continued anally making sure that everything was in order. Nora couldn't help but chuckle at the recurring display. Pyrrha had it bad. She had it REAL bad. How Jaune had never noticed Nora never fully understood, but she did understand one thing… whatever _strange_ feelings she had towards HER partner, it paled in comparison to Pyrrha's.

She paused the upcoming video, and removed her headphones. "So when do you think Jaune's getting back from that thingy?" Pyrrha looked at Nora, and looked at Ren, and then looked at the ground.

"The end wasn't completely scheduled, from what I could tell." Ren mentioned simply, "it's possible it's going as long as expected."

"Still…" Pyrrha added, "it might eat into our training time…."

Ren shrugged and returned to his book, while Nora looked at Pyrrha knowingly. Pyrrha blushed and looked away, while Nora refused to release her gaze.

"You know, just training him isn't going to do it." Nora expected Pyrrha to recoil from such a remark, but Pyrrha didn't. She simply looked down on the ground and sighed.

"I know."

"Gotta make a move Pyrrha," Nora mentioned before putting her headphones back on, "it's the modern age, we women are able to make the first move."

Pyrrha didn't make a response as Nora continued watching the let's play, and she continued giggling as the large man-child screamed at the horrors that greeted him. Maybe SHE should start one of these channels, it didn't need to be large, it could be fun! Oh, and playing scary games with JAUNE, THAT would be beautiful to experience and share with the world! If she could convince her leader to do it…. Oh she could. All she had to do was stare with those adorable eyes. Ren had become immune, but Jaune had not yet. It would be great!

She relinquished her headphones when she saw their door move, and Jaune emerge. Pyrrha had immediately shifted from her somber position to upright, efficient, and happy. It was adorable.

"Hey Jaune! How was the Cross-Kingdom program go?" Pyrrha asked, with rapt attention in her eyes. She was genuinely curious about the experience that they had all sent Jaune on.

"Oh, it was fine. Basic ice breakers though, but I'll have to work with her for some paper comparing Valian Grimm to Mistrali Grimm. You know, the Grimm from our regions of our school." Jaune sounded mentally exhausted, as if he had been answering questions for at least an hour straight.

"Well, I would love to help you with that, as someone from Mistral I'm quite well versed in the Grimmscape there." There went Pyrrha, offering to help, her usual modus operandi with their admittedly mediocre leader.

"Isn't the whole point of the assignment to bring his… associate with this project together, and that the two alone work on it?" Ren observed, much to Pyrrha's chagrin due to the dirty look she gave him.

"They're called 'allies' Ren," Jaune turned towards Nora's partner, who nodded in response. "But yeah, Ren's right Pyrrha. I appreciate the help though!" Jaune smile diluted any unintentional insult he gave towards his partner, but it did little to comfort Pyrrha, who through her smile was struggling just to scream at Jaune to notice her. In Nora's opinion, it would be so much easier if Pyrrha just did that.

"Anyway, are we still up for training Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, and Pyrrha nodded. "Great!" He responded, "do you mind if I just get my stuff from my locker and meet you at the rooftop." Once again, Pyrrha simply smiled and nodded. Jaune smiled along and ran out the door, clearly not wanting to cause Pyrrha any more waiting. Romantic or not, to claim that Jaune didn't care for Pyrrha would be an outright disgusting lie that only Pyrrha would be too paranoid to believe.

Pyrrha sighed as Jaune left, and her weapons ferrokinetically made their way to her back, strapping behind her through her semblance. Nora looked at her team-mate and said one sentence before she left as well, to make sure she was standing at the right flattering angle underneath the shattered moonlight.

"Pyrrha, you don't have to be ready now, but know that hints and helping him aren't going to cut it." Nora's words caused the champion to stop at the door, and turn her head around, overlooking her bare shoulder.

"I know." She replied with sorrow.

* * *

The boy didn't make sense. He seemed like a nice guy, but nice guy doesn't explain away some of the preposterous things she heard.

He was a leader. His team consisted of living legends such as Pyrrha Nikos. She had spent over an hour getting to know the guy with admittedly not entirely shallow questions. The facts of what he was and what he was doing did not match.

She was a master locksmith, easily infiltrating the Beacon records office. Emerald looked around to make sure she avoided the security cameras that were unsurprisingly stationed there. All of Beacon was well monitored with an extensive camera system. Emerald's semblance couldn't fool cameras, but she could sabotage them. Like how she learned how to pick locks, she learned how to avoid the gaze of a camera, as well as how to sabotage one when the simple solution of avoiding it was impossible.

After shooting the dart at the camera, freezing the image it was recording without actually shutting it off, she went forward to the filing cabinets, filled with documents pertaining to many things.

This wasn't ALL the documents Beacon had, planning to get into THAT vault would take days of preparation, but this was simply a standard records room. Transcripts, budget plans… things worth guarding but nothing worth stressing too much about. Cinder probably knew or could estimate all the data that was held within these walls, but Emerald wasn't curious about something Cinder would want to know… at least not at this time.

Jaune seemed like an anomaly, and Emerald wanted to know exactly want got him in the school. She would probably learn later simply by working with him, but she preferred to know now.

She navigated the massive library of information until she landed on accepted transcripts for first years. She went through the alphabetical files until she found the one pertaining to Jaune Arc.

According to his transcripts, he was trained privately by his father, Noah Arc, a renowned yet at the moment a prematurely retired huntsman. His signature authenticated the training he received and the scores he received at a private combat examination presided over the township of Brule, where he grew up. Naturally the Head of Brule's signature was also there.

His scores were above average. Nothing extraordinary, but would be ones worthy of respect, even for Cinder's standards. According to it, he would feasibly score in the top quarter in combat class, give or take.

Yet when Emerald went to his current records, his grades and performance at the school, he clearly scored in the bottom TENTH, and while he was moving along, in a sharp pace, it wasn't enough to justify his scores in his transcripts. There was a dichotomy that didn't make sense.

Emerald looked at the various documents in her hands, wondering why she was even bothering with all of this, especially if she's caught she would get in great trouble and could possibly compromise Cinder's mission, but something drove her. Jaune confused her, broke all her conceptions on what she thought a hunter was… a cocky, self-righteous asshole.

Jaune just seemed like an idiot, and the reports seemed to support that theory. The transcripts, however, did not.

Emerald harrumphed. It didn't make sense, there had to be some kind of explanation….

Were the transcripts fake? She looked at the pieces before her. The transcripts looked real, they felt real, they practically were 100% authentic, someone even as perceptive as Glynda Goodwitch couldn't consider fake.

So one would simply shrug it off as poor performance once put in with the big boys, but… Emerald also knew one other possibility. One incredibly rare possibility. One that needed confirmation before even going further on this hypothesis.

She was going to have to talk to a friend of Roman Torchwick's: Maya Cobb-Weber, the one who forged Cinder's, Mercury's, Neo's, and HER fake transcripts for Haven.

* * *

 **A/N: No Jaune perspective this chapter. However, this seems one of the more humor centric chapters, so I offset that with having Emerald be the perspective, it exaggerated the comedy while also providing a voice of seriousness so that the silliness didn't overwhelm the story.**

 **Also, Volume 4 is upon us. Haven't seen the first episode yet (I'll check it out tomorrow) but just so you know, the broad strokes of this story have been decided before Volume 4, which means grand revelations made in that Volume are moot in this story. If I see something and go "damn, THAT'S good, I want it in here!" Then it'll be incorporated in some way, or at least not conflicted with. Other than that, no change. So, if something happens in this story and you go, "um… that doesn't make sense because X scene in Volume 4," that's why.**

 **Also, I've deleted some guest reviews for the first time. They weren't hateful, just not… well, I'll post them here. One of them simply said "Lame," while the other simply said that the anime bible demanded that I post Lemons. For the first one, "lame" does nothing. Is the entire story lame? Is one detail I did lame? I don't expect a full review, I just like… knowing what you thought was lame? Is that too much to ask?**

 **As for the hope for lemons, I understand that some people want them and, like a well written action scene, they could add to the story, so let me tell you what I mean by "no lemons and limes." They are, to me, "portions of a story designed to describe sex or sexual actions in a titillating way to encourage excitement." Things to "fap to," to be blunt. If there is to be sex scenes in this story, they won't be overly graphic or descriptive. As I said, sex won't be shied away from, trust me, you just need to read Emerald's shower scene from last chapter or Neo's combat scene in the second chapter to know that the M Rating is being used.**

 **Other than that, yeah… that's my note. Fave! Follow! Review! Do some EXTREME ICE BREAKERS!**


	5. Counsel and Curiosity

**A/N: I don't own RWBY. That goes to Rooster Teeth, with its conception to the late Monty Oum.**

* * *

Milo crossed paths with Crocea Mors with a mighty clang. Jaune felt the grip of his shoes hold against the hard surface of the roof. He withdrew the blade and angled it to a stab, one which was easily parried and followed up by a ferocious kick that hit his gut and propelled him back, landing on his butt. Vanilla had always told Jaune that high heels hurt…. He agreed.

"Stabs are only useful from a broadsword like yours when the opponent is distracted or wide open… did I look wide open?" Pyrrha asked as Jaune forced himself up.

"You never are…" Jaune chuckled along with groaned, "…but yeah, sorry, I was following my instincts and my instincts are terrible."

"But they are improving." Pyrrha pointed out with a smile, "we'll have you getting average scores in combat class in no time!" She placed her arms akimbo as she relaxed the grip she had on her weapons. "That'll be all for today, unless you actually want to attempt aura training this time…"

"I…. uh…." aura training was practically worse than physical training. At least with fighting practice he could see what he did wrong and at least have an idea on how to improve. Aura training was abstract, like trying to comprehend what women think or… that was the only comparison he could think of. The fact still stood however, he didn't get it, and as much as Pyrrha was good at describing fighting, she could never make the auric arts clear to him. "…maybe later? I'm just tired and…"

"It makes sense, I could only imagine what Port would qualify as a 'bonding' experience with a stranger…" Pyrrha's voice wavered as she spoke, which Jaune assumed was her trying to stifle a laugh. "By the way… what _did_ you do with this… uh…. who is she, anyway?"

"Some Havenite named Emerald Sustrai, first year like us." Pyrrha shuddered mildly at the mention of Haven: typical paranoia of fans, "and all we did was ask each other questions provided by Port and Oobleck, typical stuff like what your hobbies are and what your family is like…"

"Oh… yes… typical questions." Pyrrha repeated faintly as she looked awkwardly around, as she casually holstered her weapons to her back using her semblance. Jaune collapsed his shield and sheathed his sword into it, placing it on his hip, and started to make his way to the exit.

"You know… I…. uh… I mean we… never really talked about our families or… anything like that…." Pyrrha added, pausing haphazardly. Jaune turned around, raising an eyebrow.

"No, we haven't, actually." Jaune replied slowly. "And the reason you brought this up is?..."

"Well, I mean… I guess when you mentioned that was what you were talking about with… er… Emerald I was… it sparked my curiosity, is all." Pyrrha wrapped one arm around her back as she scratched the elbow of her other arm, as she looked down to the side. There was a hint of red on her cheeks. "I mean, if you don't really want to talk about it, I mean… I haven't really discussed my family either and I just…." Pyrrha sighed, "…like getting to know my partner better." She said that last phrase like a dead weight. Jaune couldn't help but chuckle at the social awkwardness that was her partner, the beautiful and barely unapproachable championess that just so happened to have people problems like him. Who would've thought?

 _At least she's already beautiful and accomplished; she doesn't need the social skills…._ Jaune shunned that thought from his mind. She has vehemently stated on multiple occasions not to think of her like that, to ignore her own accomplishments and to focus on his own. It was easier said than done, but he tried.

So Jaune instead just chuckled, "fair enough." He replied, before turning his full body towards Pyrrha, backing into the wall adjacent to the exit door, and slouched down until his rear touched the roof. "I mean… there's…. a lot to say but nothing really… pertinent."

"Well, my family isn't that interesting," Pyrrha released her hands from her hips and laid her arms limply to her side as she walked towards Jaune to join him, sliding herself down as well to sit next to Jaune… fairly close to Jaune as well, but he dared not misconstrue Pyrrha's methods as anything more than the wall wasn't that wide to begin with, and sitting separated by a door seemed needlessly dividing. "Just my father, mother, and me. Father trained me. Mother took care of me. Happy and simple… if a bit lonely sometimes." Her voice softened as the sentence went on, a hint of regret that Jaune didn't fully understand.

"Well, mine is a bit more massive than that," Jaune laughed, "I'm an only son, but I have seven sisters along with my two parents…"

"SEVEN sisters! You have seven, I mean…." Pyrrha whistled, her eyes moving from stoically somber to bug eyed in a matter of seconds. "That's…. that's a lot of women!"

"You think I'd be better at talking to women with me growing around them but…. It only made me more frightened of them." Jaune instinctively scratched the back of his head where there was no itch. He hated that tick. "They are a grab-bag of personalities, some more… interesting than the others."

"I'd love to meet them all sometime." Pyrrha remarked, a smile slowly surfacing on her visage, "will they ever visit you here at Beacon?"

"Considering how I even got in here… what do you think their opinion is on all this?" Pyrrha's face flushed as the smile quickly disappeared.

"Oh… I mean…. If you don't mind me asking, how did they?…."

"I didn't tell my sisters, I didn't want to bother them with it, but I did believe my parents had a right to know…." Jaune trembled as he remembered, the wind suddenly becoming more noticeable as the same gentle breeze became an unforgiving torrent sending shakes straight into him. "It didn't go over well…."

"I'm sorry to hear that…" Pyrrha whispered, putting her hand on Jaune's in an attempt to comfort him. Jaune withdrew it quickly, smiling at Pyrrha hoping to show that it was okay. The frown that Pyrrha shown did not hide her usual worry.

"In a way… I don't blame them. I mean, I'm sending myself into a death trap, but…. I guess I just wanted to be a huntsman. All my life they tried to discourage me from it, talk me out of it, they didn't allow me watching combative programming to avoid further desire to become a huntsman. It's how I never heard of you…" Jaune smiled as he gestured lazily towards Pyrrha, "I kinda just wanted to sneak out, take Crocea Mors here and just leave a note but…. They already had someone who ran away, and if I was to break their hearts, I guessed I had to man up and be there for it."

"Wait…" Pyrrha looked at Jaune with confused curiosity, "one of your sisters ran away to become a huntress as well?"

Jaune shook his head, "we don't know what she's doing…. She didn't even run away from home, she just…. Disappeared. It's… it's complicated." Jaune didn't like recalling this story, but it was Pyrrha. She wouldn't trust this story with Emerald as of now, that was for sure, "I love my parents, I disagree with them on some things, but I love my family. But… they weren't perfect, and… well. My second eldest sister was…. there was something _wrong_ with her. Up here." Jaune poked his head. "My parents tried their best but they couldn't break through to her. They tried putting her on medicine, saw various doctors, enrolled her in gymnastics classes, but…." Jaune sighed, "they never knew how to get through to her."

"Forgive me for asking, but…" Pyrrha struggled to find her next word, "… _what_ was wrong with her?"

"There was just something off. When she was little, before I was born, there was a rodent infestation in the house. She apparently begged to see the rats caught in the traps, and would squeal in delight if the traps resulted in a gruesome kill." Jaune turned his eyes away from Pyrrha and looked down, "as she grew older she started exhibiting odder traits. There were times where she would just…. Refuse to talk: Days and weeks and maybe a month or two without hearing a word. She also wasn't making friends at school, and she also wasn't doing well academically. She withdrew from everyone…. Except for me, strangely."

Jaune laughed, "sometimes I would walk into her room, she would be playing rock music loudly on her headphones, look up, acknowledge me with a smile and a nod, and would just retreat back into her own little world as I sat at the base of her bed, doodling in a notebook or dreaming on how I would be a hero someday."

"When did she?..."

"When Mom and Dad had enough and where overwhelmed, and just stuck her in a mental institute. A good one, best we could afford, they loved her but…." Jaune sighed, "…sometimes when you're at a loss, you just got to give up and let the experts handle things.

"Turns out they didn't handle things well and she escaped the facility in two weeks' time. The family hasn't heard from her since."

 _But I have._ He left out that part. That was another story for another day, it was already getting late.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up." Jaune turned back towards Pyrrha, seeing the concern well up in her eyes, practically making real tears. Jaune smiled back, "it's fine, it's nice to have someone to tell these things to… but yeah, that's why I told them I was leaving for Beacon." Jaune stood up and offered a hand to Pyrrha. She firmly took it, and pulled herself up with Jaune's assistance. He immediately turned away to exit the roof, with Pyrrha following close behind.

"Maybe next time I'll tell you about how the twins Cookie and Cream wrestled me into submission to braid my hair," that got a snort from Pyrrha, who chortled all the way down the stairs.

"Now that sounds like a story I'd love to hear."

* * *

Emerald opened the door quietly, and slunk into the room for Team CMLE. She got what minimal information she could gleam from Jaune's files and she could…. Wait… why was she so invested in this boy?

Oh yeah, she was spending a decent portion of her semester with him, including working on a paper with him tomorrow afternoon. If you were going to work with someone, it was best to know everything about them. You don't need to trust someone; you just need to know someone.

"Well, you're out late." A sultry voice thrusted Emerald out of her thoughts and into the room, where glowing Amber eyes greeted her in the darkness. Cinder rose from her chair and walked over to Emerald, each step pronouncing its own self-assuredness. "Care to explain?"

"I was looking over Jaune Arc's records. He didn't seem like a typical huntsman, and since I have to work with him, I thought I'd look into how he got into Beacon. What he's like…. If he's somebody we should be looking out for."

"Indeed, when someone doesn't meet expectations, it's possible that they're dangerous." Cinder's sneer didn't leave her face as she looked Emerald up and down with… pride? Emerald hoped it was pride. "What did you find out?"

"His transcripts and performance don't match." Emerald needn't hide anything from Cinder. "He should be performing way better than he is at school, but he isn't."

"Interesting…" Cinder said it in a way that showcased she didn't find it interesting. "And what do you gleam from that?"

"He either doesn't belong here, or he's holding something back." Emerald reported. "What's more curious is Pyrrha is his partner. And leader as well."

"The champion? Ah yes, I had a feeling Jaune Arc sounded familiar, leader of Team JNPR…" Cinder looked off into the distance, "three of some of the best fighters in Beacon… and their leader. He suffers from his subordinates are stronger than himself, but they seem to respect him. Maybe he is holding himself back…" Wait, Cinder already knew of Jaune and his relationship with Pyrrha?... Wait, of course she did. She was Cinder, she probably knew every single member of every single team by now. Emerald shouldn't be so surprised.

"Do you think knowledge of Jaune Arc is imperative to the mission?" Cinder asked, and Emerald had to consider it. _Is he? I mean…._

"Probably not imperative, however, I am spending a good chunk of my time with him in Beacon. It may prove useful as I interact with him, he has the arsenal of three powerful fighters, and if he is what I think he is," _a fraud posing his way into Beacon,_ "then he could be easily manipulated, and that could prove useful."

"Fair enough," Cinder smiled, "continue your investigation on Jaune Arc, but do try to not let it take over your other duties." Emerald nodded as Cinder walked towards the door and opened it brazenly, letting the hallway lighting spill into the room, revealing it was empty besides Cinder and herself. _Mercury must be out womanizing again_.

The door closed, and Emerald was left alone. She looked around the empty beds and went to hers. She undressed and got into her pajamas, pulled out the sheets and wrapped herself around in a protective cocoon. She closed her eyes and shut out the world.

And begged for no dreams to visit her.

* * *

"Jaune," the name was whispered as Pyrrha found herself awake. She didn't remember what it was she saw in her sleep, but it made her shiver. There was red. There was blood. She stood amongst it, walking along the surface of the lake of fallen Grimm…. Yet Jaune was there, consumed by the battle that she just let loose in. Yes… she fought for her and emerged…. he fought and fell.

She was so used to just fighting for herself…. Fighting alone on a pulpit of glory. There was more now, she let herself have more. Something to fight for. Someone to fight for. Someone to protect.

She looked over at Jaune, who slumbered quietly in his adorably childish onesie. Apparently it was really comfortable… did Jaune have no shame? She smiled, but the image of him dead in the midst of her victory returned.

 _It was a dream. That was all._ She told herself over and over, but… what if there was a time it wouldn't be a dream. What if the day came where she would battle for herself, pull herself into victory as she was so akin to doing… and forgetting about him. Forgetting about Ren and Nora… the people that made her feel better from outside competition. Friends… Love…

She sighed and tried to sink into the covers, her eyes refusing to close, preferring the darkness of reality than the bleakness behind her eyes. She used to have dreams like that, where she would tear down the forces of darkness, that she transformed into a sword of good, of justice, or righteousness….

….and she was always alone in these dreams. But this time Jaune was there…. And he died.

She would never say it to Jaune, but he worried her. He was improving, but was he improving fast enough? Was her training good enough to guarantee his survival? He wanted to be a hero. He wanted to better himself. The thoughts of him improving so hard not only for himself, but possibly… for her? It made her heart swell.

But it still doesn't change that fact that in combat class, it was merely grades and rankings on the line. Outside the walls of Beacon, it was life and death, and what if she couldn't make him ready. What if she lost herself and was unable to protect him?

No. She couldn't let that happen. She would always be there for Jaune. She could be strong enough for both of them. He certainly had a tactical mind; that was useful. He was better suited as a leader than a fighter… she could be the fighter. She could be his sword.

She will be there to help him better himself, but when the chips were down, it was up to her to make sure Jaune didn't get himself killed.

No matter what the danger was. She was Pyrrha Nikos. She was strong enough to do it for him.

For Team JNPR. For her friends.

For her love.

* * *

Emerald walked around the shady neighborhoods of Vale's warehouse districts. Mercury promised to write good notes for class, not that she needed them. Cinder had taught her enough of Grimm patterns and historical events for her to be a star pupil without even having to crack open a textbook. She only needed to know what was covered, so there were no surprises. Mercury needed the notes more than her.

The mysterious expert forger shifted places, the permanent safe-house unknown to the thief. Nevertheless, Emerald could locate anyone who could feasibly be found. You just had to ask the right people.

She couldn't locate Neo with ease, so she simply resorted to asking Junior. She entered the bar and sat casually down at the counter, leaning forward. The bartender looked surprised. "You know we are closed for business…"

"Not looking for a drink. Can I talk to Junior please?"

The man nodded and went behind a curtain. Outside emerged a giant hulk of a man, beefy and bearded. More intimidating looking than he actually was. The man fought with a rocket launcher, but could easily lose to someone who hadn't even reached Beacon. It was rather embarrassing, but no one relied on him for his skills in combat. More so for his odd ability to know anything.

"What do you want girlie, I don't think I've seen you before…" Torchwick normally dealt with this man, and Cinder would have no part with him. He was a pawn below her. Cinder didn't need an informant when she had a knack for just knowing things.

Emerald didn't have that knack yet. "I'm looking for Maya Cobb-Weber, do you happen to know where she is?"

"Maybe," Junior said, "but may I ask why you need her?"

"Just to talk." Emerald replied simply, "there's something I need verified as real or not, and rather than going to the cops, I thought an expert like her would be better suited." Junior nodded at her reasoning, but gave her a suspicious glare.

"And what if you are a cop?"

"If you ask Neo, I'm sure she wouldn't call me a cop… well, she wouldn't call me anything, but you know what I mean." At the mention of the ice cream midget's name, Junior paled and gulped. Emerald couldn't help but smile. "Also, Torchwick can verify I am no member of law enforcement."

Junior nodded, "very well. I'll bring her out."

 _What?_

Junior disappeared behind the curtain and remained hidden for a good five minutes. Emerald twiddled her thumbs and looked around the club. It was pristine, new tables and fabric along booth seats. The stools also looked brand new, as if the entire establishment had an overhaul. Emerald snickered, having heard how a young hotshot came in and wrecked the place, bouncers, goons, Junior, and all. At least the place had enough connections to have people interested in having their favorite hideaway well kept.

"Today's your lucky day lady; she's here renewing our liquor license." Junior remerged with the petite woman. Her hair was made with both shocking white and silver grey, twisting around in braids and descending into a long ponytail that drooped down to most of her body length. She wore ornate bronze goggles with blackened lenses, with small additional lenses connected to the thick metallic frame. Other than that, she was dressed simply, with a white button-up blouse, black jacket, long black skirt, and bronze-colored gloves. She smiled slightly upon seeing the thief sitting at the counter.

"Emerald, was it? What a pleasant surprise. Especially to see you without that Cinder woman," the woman tisked as she turned towards Junior. "Don't worry, she's no law-woman. Girl probably should be in jail more than you." Junior sighed as he shook the lady's hand.

"Thanks for the work, Ms. Cobb-Weber, we couldn't have this establishment without you."

"I honestly think the world would be better if people would gather for a meal rather than imbibe in a drink, but who am I to dictate how you do things?" She smiled slightly as she released her gloved hand from Junior's, before returning her gaze to Emerald. She moved the goggles to her forehead, exposing her maroon eyes and crow's feet. "May I ask the purpose that lead to this chance encounter?"

Emerald couldn't believe her luck, but she wasn't about to question it. "I need you to verify if something is real or fake. Considering your abilities I feel you'd be the best judge."

Ms. Maya Cobb-Weber nodded thoughtfully. "You've come to the right woman, but I can't do such things here." She produced a white sheet of silk from her sleeve. "Put this on Emerald, if it pleases you."

Emerald took the silken kerchief in her hand and looked upon it in confusion. She returned her gaze to Maya, who just chuckled like it was a silly joke.

"Around your eyes, dearie, I can't have you know where my workshop is… can't leave any loose ends!"

 _Oh hell no._ Emerald wasn't going to cover her eyes. She instead stared deep into Maya's, making the illusion that she put the blindfold on….

Maya lowered her goggles over her eyes, and her smile became spry and mischievous. "I'm not falling for that dearie." She chuckled as Emerald growled in frustration. Damn limitations of her semblance, she needed her bare eyes to infiltrate another exposed eyes. Thin glasses could work, but thick goggles like hers… even something as stupid as sunglasses…. Damn it.

Emerald acquiesced, shrouding her eyes in the white cloth. She felt her hand being grabbed by a gloved hand, and guided out of the club and into the seat of the car. She heard Maya open the door and plop down next to her. "And no peaking! Trust me, I'll know."

"And what will you do to me?"

She hummed pensively as she shifted her car into drive. "Probably blow your whole cover in Beacon, and while I'm not the best fighter, I'm a great survivor… I wouldn't try killing me Ms. Sustrai. Besides, what a silly way to fail your little experiment, Oum knows what it is."

 _Probably best that you don't know._ Emerald let herself slouch into the chair of Maya's car as it careened and shifted through various roads. _Right. Left. Straight for a while. Left._ Emerald's sense of direction and movement were not good enough to truly decipher where she was going, tried as she did.

Eventually the car slowed down and stopped. She heard a massive garage door move down, groaning under the mechanical procedure. She heard the door collapse on the ground, ending with a proud _snap_!

"You can take that blasted thing off, dearie. Sorry for making you uncomfortable." Emerald sighed as she withdrew the blindfold, only to be greeted with more darkness, nothing visible to her as Maya turned off the car, the headlights no longer operating.

The counterfeiter exited the car and snapped her finger, springing the garage to life. Tables surrounded the industrial space, magnifying glasses, printing machines, containers of ink, copies of various official documents, containers of a variety of paper types littered each workspace…. Things Emerald didn't really comprehend. She was a thief, and her lies existed purely in the mind. These were tricks manufactured and put into reality.

"So do you have what you want me to look at?" She asked as Emerald emerged from the car, "if it's a good forgery it might not even be possible to purely ascertain it as fake or real... then again that would assume someone could reach my level of work." She chuckled slightly.

"Oh, yes." Emerald reached into her pants pocket, revealing the heavily folded document. "I hope you don't mind creases in it…"

"I have a paper iron if necessary," Maya scoffed as she snatched it from her hand, "this usually isn't a fast process. Go ahead and go inside. Treat yourself to something from the fridge if you like, there's a TV if you're interested in the news or whatever shows girls your age watch."

Emerald suddenly had a thought pop into her head "Why is your studio in your garage? Wouldn't passersby just see all of this if they just walked along and saw you enter your house?"

"That would require anyone passing by, dearie. Now go and get yourself some food. You look dreadfully skinny." She continued unfolding the piece of paper as Emerald, now more confused than otherwise, entered the house.

It was surprisingly cozy; the crackle of an electric fireplace could be heard as Emerald flicked the light on. It was a simple single story living abode, with a kitchen and living room merging into a great room, and what was probably a bathroom and bedroom down an unassuming hallway that extended past the two main rooms. There was a coatrack and a shoe cubby alongside the door, which Emerald promptly ignored. She walked into the kitchen, and checked the fridge, realizing she was hungry: she had a light breakfast to make time for reaching the soonest bullhead to Vale, not knowing how long it would take her to find Ms. Cobb-Weber.

She pulled out an apple, and chomped down on the cooled fruit, and looked the welcoming home. She chuckled slightly. When she accompanied Cinder to meeting with her, under Torchwick's instructions, it was in a cold warehouse. She sat there silently as Cinder did the talking, and Maya looked at all of them. Her. Mercury. And Cinder. Nodding at every demand that Cinder gave to her, and smiling at her prospective payment. She did not come cheap, Torchwick warned, but she was the only one he knew that could make something that could slip past Haven's admissions board.

Even with their informant in Haven, they didn't have the entire staff of Haven in their pay-book. They needed something that could pass if some of the higher ups decided to give extra scrutiny, it was a security measure.

She walked down the modest hallway and turned to look at the single toilet and single shower bathroom. Small yet effective, with a humble medicine cabinet and a modest waste basket, next to a wicker container containing…. Romance novels?

She turned away and walked towards what she assumed was Maya's bedroom. She opened the door, and was greeted by a queen sized bed, a nice reading chair….

And multiple cages of spiders. Some cages hung from the ceiling, some were placed on coffee tables, but all contained massive tarantulas or a vast network of spider webs crawling with the buggers. Beneath the bed was a massive container with which Emerald assumed were the arachnids' food…. Emerald decided to leave.

She emerged back into the garage, to be met by Ms. Cobb-Weber chuckling harmoniously. "My my…. What are you doing with these Emerald?"

"Are they fakes?" Emerald asked, which was responded with further jovial laughter.

"Yes! I…I should know!" She said in between guffaws, "I made them!"

* * *

 **A/N: Meet OC number 1: Maya Cobb-Weber, an expert forger with a love of spiders… hopefully she doesn't take you out of the experience. As I said, I love critique!**

 **Those who read Zwei-Handlers [don't worry, next chapter coming soon!] know where some plot elements are going, and some of you who don't probably see it coming as well…. I'm not being subtle here.**

 **As for people hoping for Weiss vs. Atlas updates, I…. have no excuse other than my own busy schedule and writer's block. I apologize.**

 **Lots of exposition this chapter too… there was more to come, but I thought it was best to break it up into two chapters so this wasn't "wall of text, the chapter." Up next is how Jaune came to interact with Maya and get his fake transcripts in terms of exposition.**

 **Until then Fave! Follow! Review! Go on a blindfolded car-ride! It will end well, I promise!**


	6. Bargains and Agreements

**A/N: I don't own RWBY. That goes to Rooster Teeth, with its conception to the late Monty Oum.**

* * *

Emerald stared at the strange lady as she simply smiled and stroked the paper, as if savoring each letter of her creation. Maya Cobb-Weber hummed in satisfaction as she relaxed and sat down, peering into the parchment as if contained a pleasant image, her old, wrinkled sockets holding the dark red warmth in her eyes.

"You made those?" Emerald asked. _Jaune knows Maya? Is he…. is he what he says he is?_

Emerald suspected some form of foul play when Jaune's transcripts disagreed with her impression of him, but for him to actually have a criminal contact? Agreed, the accusation of Jaune having fake transcripts yet still making it to Beacon certainly screamed _"Jaune is not what he seems!"_ but Emerald wasn't expecting for Jaune to interact with the _exact same person_ who made her transcripts to Haven!

Maya was freelance, but expensive and exclusive freelance. To even know of her you had to have avenues and connections deep into the Vale criminal network, and even then you have to afford her. Jaune's family is huge, and to sustain a huge family probably required a generous income through either job or inheritance, but would Jaune, a child of eight, have a decent stake in that fortune now? Enough to afford someone that even Cinder winced at in terms of payment, and Cinder could accrue anything she really needed!

"I did indeed, that is what I said." The woman replied, mildly amused. "I guess you're wondering why I made these and why Jaune here had them made." She smiled at some joke that Emerald neither heard nor understood.

"I know the first one, because Jaune paid you."

Maya smiled and laughed, "that is the simplest answer. I was paid and I provided."

"What's the long answer?"

"Client confidentiality Emerald, I'm sorry." The old woman continued to chuckle. "You can't achieve the confidence and trust of criminals without some secrecy, dear."

"Is Jaune a criminal?" Emerald dug her nails into her fists as she became all aware of the cold air within the forger's garage. _Just how much of a liar is he?_

Jaune came across as incompetent, awkward, and a liability with some intelligence at best, but he also came across as honest, someone that Emerald deemed foolish enough for her to believe. And it's possible she misread that. Jaune might have lied about who he was to her. Emerald would never admit her feelings about that to herself….

….so she won't.

"Hah!" The old lady squeaked as she gripped the document tighter as if struggling to not let go. "Criminal? Sure he did some illegal things but he's no criminal!"

"Isn't that… what a criminal is?" Emerald crossed her arms and leaned on the cold cement wall, firming her glare with the forger.

"In the most literal yet inaccurate sense, yes." Maya nodded, after finally letting the document back on the table after giving it one last fond look. "But trust me, I deal with criminals, and all criminals break laws, but not all who break laws are criminals. Some…" the woman shrugged her shoulders into her chair, "….just break the law because that's what their situation demands. No malignance. No selfish ambition. Jaune needed those transcripts and I helped him."

Emerald sighed through her teeth as she refused to let up her interrogating gaze. "And what quantifies as…. Need?"

"Client confidentiality Emerald. Sorry, can't tell you anything." The woman closed her eyes, craned her head back, and smiled. "At least not for free."

Emerald continued gritting and frustratingly bounded off the wall, walking slackly to the center of the room. She couldn't afford Maya, and Cinder… well…. she wouldn't find the information worth the cost.

 _You have a lead. A piece of the puzzle. Take that and follow through, you needn't get your information here._

Emerald searched her mind for one question. A question that would help find the next piece of the puzzle without going straight to Jaune. A skilled liar is someone you couldn't predict, criminal or no. For all Emerald knew, Jaune tricked this old woman as much as he did herself.

"If he's not a criminal, how did he find you?"

Maya whistled, "now that is a good question that even I don't know the full answer to. Someone referred me to him, yet I have no idea who it is."

"Did he give a name?"

"Yes… never heard it before though. 'Paulie.'"

"Paulie?"

"Indeed, y'know, I actually wouldn't mind finding him out…. I personally checked every gang and crime empire I know," the woman shook her head, "no one by the name of 'Paulie.' If you could find him and thank him for sending such a delightful young boy my way, I'd be really appreciative."

"So…. You'd break client confidentiality for that?"

"My interactions with him are confidential, what he did before and after that… not my concern to keep secret unless he specifies otherwise and pays the according fee."

Emerald nodded, "so I guess you won't tell me how he paid you." Maya shrunk back in her chair, hand reaching for her heart as if aghast, "you can't tell me Jaune could afford you. I saw his wallet, he has no Lien."

"Maybe he spent it all on me?"

"Probably, but would it be enough? How did he pay you?"

The almost sardonic shock turned into a satisfied smile, "client confidentiality, Emerald."

* * *

Jaune walked with Nora and Ren to the library, with Pyrrha staying behind to discuss some things with Goodwitch. Apparently, due to her flawless record yet an unsatisfied desire for challenge, she was discussing special spars during combat class for her. Full teams versus her alone. Upperclassmen. Things like that. That was the only reason, she stressed, there was no other reasons for her to lag behind and miss out on meeting Emerald. Jaune decided to believe Pyrrha, despite minor suspicions which held conclusion Jaune couldn't draw.

Jaune thought that it was best to introduce Emerald to his team as soon as possible, so maybe she would feel comfortable introducing her team to him. From what he got from Sun, Emerald's team, CMLE, was a reclusive one. The leader, Cinder Fall, lurked in the background, appearing to be mature yet relaxed, not desiring to make a scene. Another named Lacey Mint was never around, and Mercury Black would only talk to you if you were a woman and willing.

Though he apparently never made moves on his partner, and Jaune didn't find that entirely implausible, Emerald came across as reserved. Happy and kind, but self-respecting and self-distancing. With all her smiles and kind words, unlike Pyrrha and Ruby who seemed to reach out with them, Emerald…. seemed to push back with them. End all possible confrontation, open no avenues to truly converse, only to say words.

"Uhhhg!" Nora sidled up to Jaune, eying him with dissatisfaction, "why do we have to join you in the library to study? You even said Emerald won't show up for another hour! We could easily…"

"You'd just watch internet videos and not get anything done." Ren responded from behind. "We need to study."

Nora turned her head and faced her partner. "Whyyyy do I need to study when I have you Renny?! You know everything!"

"You should learn effective study skills and not purely rely on others to learn the information for you."

"That's what the teachers are!"

"That's different…."

"How?"

Jaune simply watched the back and forth, uncaring on how it'll pan out because there were thousands of them like that before. Ren and Nora would bicker. Nora would get heated, Ren would remain calm, and then Nora would hug Ren and it would all be over before Nora's hug would make Ren pass out. They were like the ideal married couple, a harmony of conflict and compromise about things as important as their life goals to things as trivial as….

"Ren you read better than me, I can't ever give enough of my attention to such a boring thing as a textbook."

….this.

They were about as together-together as partners could be without wedding bands. Yet from Nora's impulsive and unprovoked denials to Ren's lack of even acknowledging that they gave off such a vibe, Jaune never pressed for clarification if their relationship was something more, or could be something more and they were holding off for some reason.

He should probably get on that, leaders should know where intra-team relationships stand. He should know how each and every team member feels about one another, but he knew he would never have the nuanced empathy required for such accurate observations.

Hell, there were times where he suspected Pyrrha had a crush on him! But that was absurd! Pyrrha was just trying to be a helpful partner and friend. Just because a woman is kind to you and wanted to help you did not automatically mean they were interested in you. Sure, she pegged him to a tree and immediately sought him out, but that was to make sure he didn't die from not knowing a landing strategy. She had the means to help, and she wasn't one to turn to the wayside when she could help.

Pyrrha just wanted a friend and a partner, and Jaune refused to confuse anything she did with something more in fear of making their relationship and partnership awkward. He wasn't even sure if he wanted something more from Pyrrha.

"Hold it…." Ren stopped in the middle of the hall. Nora skidded to a stop as Jaune casually slowed his stride to stillness, looking back at his fellow male. "…do you feel that?"

"What? 'The sense of responsibility?'" Nora said in a mocking tone.

"No… it feels like we're being watched." Ren pensively peered over his shoulder, slowly shifting his neck to scan vertically down the corridor that was laced with people coming and going from various places.

"Well duh, we're having another one of our spats…. Not a lover's spat, by the way." Nora was quick to explain and clarify. "People love watching arguments."

"Not like that, no." Ren said wistfully, but then turned his head and shrugged. "Maybe I'm just being paranoid."

"Well duh, you always are Ren." Nora smiled, "now how about instead of going to the library, we go back to the room and…."

"Jaune…" Ren deadpanned as he faced his leader and motioned to his partner.

"We're going to the library," Jaune firmly ordered, much to Nora's vocal pouting. They were almost at the entrance anyway, to the point it would be longer to return to the dorms.

When they reached the library, the corridor opened up to a large atrium lined with shelves, with digital/scroll-friendly titles mixed with archaic written books. A wealth of information that no one with even only a separate hobby would have time to fully explore.

In the end though, the volumes on the shelves remained untouched as the computers were the sole tools employed by the students. Men and women lined the public desks as they typed and searched from anything entertaining to vital information they needed for a test or project.

"I thought libraries were for reading," Ren mused sadly as Nora gave a comforting shoulder rub. As if their "fight," if it could even be called that, never happened.

Ren broke through the mold and pulled out a massive tome laced with the history of Remnant, written in ink and bound by leather. He was going to study history more in depth, so that he would understand the events better than the watered down version that Oobleck taught. The man talked fast, but he only had an hour.

Nora immediately flipped on her scroll and looked at a comedic web-comic, snickering all the while.

Jaune headed for the digital shelves, hoping to get a head start on this project. Thankfully it would be graded by observable effort over content, meaning as long as it was well written and had thought put into it, they should be fine. They wouldn't get random points off for forgetting to use a certain report format, or forgetting about a certain Grimm, only if the exercise made them work together….

Which meant Jaune had to be able to contribute, and to contribute, he had to know a thing or two that he didn't know at this moment, like Vale specific Grimm species and activities.

It wasn't like he went to a Grimm studies course. Only a couple survival tips given to him, "to buy him time before the huntsmen and huntresses show up."

Jaune sighed, while he had learned he can't do everything alone, he did need to stop relying on others for every single thing.

"Ugh! I can't believe it! The Valian cataloguing system is different from the Atlesian cataloguing system!" A familiar voice lamented across a bookshelf, and Jaune's heart panicked slightly. Jaune groaned as he tried to lessen his hormones, silence his impulsive emotions….

…but nevertheless he peaked around the shelf to see Weiss Schnee growling at the rows of scroll-book download terminals.

 _Okay…. She's having problems looking for a book. Just be confident, be kind, and offer to help._

"So… Weiss!" Jaune made his presence known as he walked full view towards the heiress. "So are you looking for something, because…."

Weiss's eyes widened for a half second before suddenly glazing over, and immediately raising her hand, palm facing Jaune's face.

"No Jaune. Whatever it is you'll do that ends with a date proposal, I am not interested." She huffed, before lowering her hand turning her face away, burrowing her vision into the rows of terminals, "however… if you do know where to find a full 'Remnant: The Game' strategy guide, I would appreciate that… though not enough to agree on a date."

 _Rejection again, but maintain confidence._ "I'll get you to say 'yes' someday!" Jaune smiled as Weiss lifted her other hand to her face and mumbled something into it. "However, I'd still love to help. There's probably something like that in the entertainment section, I can show you where it is if you'd like."

"How about you just tell me where it is and leave it at that?" Weiss sharply replied, hiding no hint of annoyance. Jaune bit down on his bubbling insecurities and kept that peachy grin on his face. _Fake it till you make it._

"Very well, it's up the stairs, on the opposite side of this room, furthest on your left, facing the way I'm facing, so you're right at the moment."

"You would know where the entertainment section is here, wouldn't you?" Weiss didn't attempt to mumble, only sadly breathing out. "And of course they would ignore the clear fundamentals of the Dew Decimal System. Well, thank you Jaune." She turned around and walked towards Jaune's favorite section, without a word.

When Weiss left Jaune's field of view, Jaune cursed at himself quietly; he had no idea how to handle his feelings towards Weiss. What did he even feel towards Weiss? Certainly he found her the most attractive of his immediate group of… "friends." (She was more like a team-mate/partner of a friend: Ruby) She was elegant, well spoken, and…. well, there was something beyond that cold exterior, a side to her that Jaune could sense, but wanted to see, wanted to know more of.

Also yes Weiss was just really physically attractive to him. She may be flat chested but…. Jaune valued himself a leg-man beyond anything else… he couldn't ignore the hormonal side of his crush either, they were natural and the reason people considered having romantic relations in the first place, it's intelligence with hormones that make love, after all.

Still…. He'd like to imagine his crush wasn't purely vapid… he just didn't know how to express it at first, it wasn't like he could just ignite a conversation that would truly delve into getting to know her on the spot, it's not like he could ask…

"…why did that Lingerer terrify you so much?"

* * *

After Maya had driven her back to downtown Vale, with the same damn blindfold put on her, Emerald did some more investigating, asking around the few criminal organizations she knew about anyone known as "Paulie." She got the same results as Maya, not a single person knew who "Paulie" was.

Emerald took a Bullhead back to Beacon with answers, but another question with it. Jaune had faked his way into Beacon, but how did he find the best counterfeiter in the business? How did he pay for it? Was Paulie the answer to both of his questions? And if so, who was Paulie and why would he owe a favor to Jaune?

Maybe Torchwick would know. She didn't ask him not because Emerald had no idea where to look for the stylish kingpin, she did, but because the man was incredibly busy… busy with _their_ plan. Cinder wouldn't like it if Emerald delayed Torchwick for even a millisecond.

Maybe if an opportunity ever presented itself she'll ask. Until then, moderately important criminals were her best sources outside of bluntly interrogating Jaune herself, but that would of course blow her cover as the nice, totally typical huntress student.

Besides, she had her own errand: working on that stupid paper with the stupid boy. _Or maybe it's just an act._ Emerald shook the paranoia out of her head. She would know what was an act and what wasn't, a person like her could sniff out anyone who was doing putting on a performance with any skill less than hers.

 _And if Jaune is better than you?_

Then he would've performed in line with his transcripts, which he's not.

 _It doesn't matter if your skilled in combat, only if you're skilled at staying alive and providing a threat._

He was partnered with Pyrrha Nikos, most probably the best fighter in his year, and he led a team not only containing her, but two other strong fighters. He could be a Torchwick type, except of only Neo, he had three powerful bodyguards that would follow every word of his, why?

Intelligence and Charisma, which, if used correctly, could make up for lack of physical prowess… and are traits that are required to convincingly live a false life.

Emerald scoffed at her own worries. The odds of Jaune actually being some kind of threat? Con-man or not, how could his motives clash with her own? Jaune's problems were probably a completely separate thread, only intersecting with her own challenges in the minute moments she had to interact with him throughout this semester.

"Hey! Emerald right?" A female voice boomed behind the thief. She stopped in her tracks, made sure her conversational smile was transfixed as she turned around to face the vocal assailant. She was on the tall side, with a massive mane of blonde hair that practically descended down to behind her kneecaps. Her violet eyes beamed with intensity that even Emerald had problems not shying away from.

To her left was a dark skinned man dressed in a pinstripe suit and a fedora. While his female companion seemed to stand tall and proud, he seemed much more relaxed, yet still giving an aura of confidence.

Emerald didn't need to hear another word to know that these two were arrogant pieces of shit that believed themselves to be the crème de la crème of society…. Not from wealth or family, but from pre-conceived notion of a moral high ground, and Emerald hated that even more than a person touting he or she was a Schnee.

"Indeed, and may I know who you two are?" Emerald graciously opened for conversation.

"I'm Yang. Yang Xiao Long!" The girl smiled and offered her hand, and Emerald took it. "And this hipster next to me is my 'ally' from Atlas, Flynt Coal."

"Nice to meet you," the boy casually addressed her, only tipping his head and peering through his on-indoors sunglasses. Emerald was annoyed by that…. She couldn't trick him if she had to.

"It's nice to meet you both…. But I am quite curious… why greet me at all?" Emerald tried to remove any form of annoyance and condescension from her speech, make her genuine question seem genuinely enthralled to make new friends.

Flynt shrugged, while Yang continued to make eye contact. "I'm a friend of Jaune's…. at least my sister is... we're more like acquaintances. I heard you're his ally in this fun little project we're all participating in!"

"Indeed I am!" Emerald grinned into her words, "he's an… interesting fellow."

" _Pffffft!_ " Yang rasberried in good humor, "that's one way to say it, he's certainly not typical."

"Well, I look forward to learning more about him." Emerald nodded along with a statement she genuinely believed herself.

"Just be careful if you ever have to share a Bullhead ride with him, he… doesn't take the air well. Protect your shoes." Yang winked and coupled it with a smirk.

 _I… have no idea what that means._ "I'll be sure to… do that."

"Also, another thing to be careful about…."

"What?"

"If you dare to either flirt with him or hurt him, or maybe even both…. Pyrrha will kill you… and I'm only 95% sure that I'm talking in a metaphorical sense." Yang's gaze suddenly fell stern, her lilac eyes peering deeper into Emerald's red ones.

Emerald had a front, indeed. But she never cowered within it. "Why is that?" She asked, without curving beneath Yang's intense ocular assault.

"You'll probably notice it. Only person who can't see the obvious is Jaune himself." Yang scoffed as she walked back towards Flynt, who seemed rather lackadaisical about the whole thing. "Just a couple of friendly warnings from an inter-kingdom ally to another!"

"Thank you." Emerald ended it with a smile as she turned around to go to the library, overhearing Flynt asking with minimal interest "what was all that about?" She would have to ask herself that question, but it did raise some concerns.

There were people in this school that cared about him. Yang didn't seem too attached, considering she only called him an "acquaintance," but nevertheless deemed it necessary to warn her about Pyrrha… and didn't seem to be purely as friendly advice, but posited to squash Emerald from "trying anything."

 _Pyrrha would hate it if I hurt Jaune… or… flirted with him. I understand hurting your partner would incite an amount of anger depending on closeness, but flirting? Why would…._

Emerald didn't even have time to finish that question in her head before the obvious answer interrupted that train of thought. _No… no way… Pyrrha…. And that…. That CLOWN?_

Emerald stored that revelation in her head. Cinder would actually want to know about _that._

* * *

She arrived exactly on time, walking through the door in an intense march. Her eyes were drawn to the floor, but she was clearly not observing the floorboards out of shyness or genuine interest in the polished planks that graced her feet. No. She was in thought.

Jaune knew he shouldn't value himself as good at "reading people." He's made wrong assumptions before, which is why he was quick to question any "person-read" he ever made, only slipping up on that self-promise once or twice. Yes, he now knew that Weiss was being sarcastic when she referred to him as "handsome" alongside "scraggly," but the thought entered his mind, and it was hard to shake off.

Yet when it came to facial expressions, there was a base truth that Jaune couldn't really understand, but he could grant himself power to know. Pyrrha's angry looks during the Cardin incident were burned into his mind, a constant reminder not to fuck up again like that. Ruby's shining silver eyes that elicited her belief in anyone gave him the warm fuzzies when he needed to pick himself up.

Maya Cobb-Weber's face of satisfaction when it touched his leg…..

Jaune shivered, it traumatized him for life.

Yet Emerald looked pensive, as if something bothered her. He didn't know what, he didn't know why, and he didn't know how the hell he could make a difference anyway, so he won't.

"Ahhhh! You must be Emerald! FINALLY!" Nora blurted out, while the defeated librarian groaned as she had given up on successfully shushing Nora a long time ago. "It's great to meet you! Jaune has said sooo much about you!"

Jaune looked at Nora with shock as he suddenly felt Emerald's hot red eyes target him. "Did he now?" She sounded friendly, but… he didn't think the accusation was friendly.

"Okay…. No, he didn't. He told us your name and your general appearance… that's it!" Nora then knelt down, her face towards Emerald's torso, looking her up and down "though he didn't say that you would give Pyrrha's body a run for her money…"

"NORA!" Jaune didn't exclaim as Ren did for him. "My apologies, my partner is rather…. Forward."

"It's no problem… I know people like that." Emerald laughed as she flashed her wonderfully white teeth that contrasted with her rich dark skin. Jaune couldn't help but admire her face, she was rather beautiful. Nevertheless, he shunted that thought in favor of a more appropriate one.

"Emerald," Jaune walked forward, "this is Ren," he motioned to the quiet man in green, who amicably nodded, "and you've already met Nora," who in response waved her hand insanely like she was bitch-slapping the air. "They're members of my team."

"I gathered," Emerald replied with a short laugh, "is Pyrrha anywhere?"

"Oh no… she's making some special request with Goodwitch, said she didn't have time to come, sorry you couldn't meet her." Emerald nodded, while giving him a…. curious(?) look. Jaune shrugged his shoulders, trying to convey an _I don't know either_ , and simply smiled in return.

"Well, now that I've met her, I'M LEAVING THIS BORING PLACE!" Nora stuck out her tongue as she raised her pointer and pinkie finger to the sky, and then bounded out of the quiet place for study.

"….sorry…." Ren meekly apologized to everyone in earshot of the mumble, as he sullenly followed Nora out into the corridor.

That left Emerald and Jaune, who stood at their small section of the study area rigid and wordless. Jaune was looking for a word to say, pouring over his personal dictionary placed within his cranium. He found what he had to say…..

"Hello again?" That ice breaker always seemed to work for Pyrrha.

"Your team seems…." Emerald herself paused mid-sentence, drawing her left hand to her chin as she returned her gaze to the floorboards, "…interesting."

"They're great once you get to know them….."

"Not Nora!" Objected the librarian.

"Nobody asked you!" Jaune retaliated, "also, go shush yourself!"

" _SHUSH!_ " The librarian dragged her finger to her lips and unleashed a torrent of salivating disdain for noise, she then eerily crooked her other pointer finger towards Jaune, "shush you."

Emerald looked unimpressed, the smile looking even more strained than it usually did. Jaune sighed as he gestured for Emerald to follow him to a more private study room so they could converse and discuss the project without disturbing anyone else in the library: librarian included.

When they reached the counsel room and closed the door, Emerald leaned along the wall next to the entryway. "So… you seem protective of your team." She eyed him, still with her mouth upright, but her gaze looked like someone peering through a microscope.

"They don't need my protection," Jaune admitted, "but I don't like it when people say bad things about them."

"Makes sense…. I suppose." Emerald shrugged as she pulled out her scroll. "So, I have a list of all the Mistrali Grimm, highlighting the ones I've personally encountered while on student missions or from personal experience." Jaune took the scroll and looked through it….

 _Oumly shit._ A majority of them were highlighted, with only the really large and rare Grimm being left alone. Underneath each highlighted Grimm was even a preferred kill method, as well as basic attack and defense patterns each species exhibited.

Jaune pulled out a notebook: it had a couple bullet points.

Emerald playfully giggled at his paltry contribution to the project. "No worries, I always had a tendency to overachieve a bit." Emerald left the wall to sit at the table in the center of the room. Jaune sat across from her as he opened his notebook further, also pulling out his scroll.

"Also, I got an extensive library of books detailing a plethora of Grimm sightings in Vale, we could discuss how certain species from our regions tend to migrate, along with the one's we share."

"So… how will we structure this paper?…"

They got to work, and Emerald was not kidding when she said she was an overachiever. She wrote feverishly the outline, and every input he made Emerald wrote in a different colored pen to differentiate his thoughts with her thoughts. She had different colored highlighters, and she talked about the project with an official tone, stating everything literal and exact, though her grin never left her face.

Jaune liked that he wasn't being too useless; there were times where his suggestions would be greeted by a friendly nod and a considerable effort in making sure to listen to what he had to say. She did work like a freshly wound clock, and seemed to plan even more extensively than he did in team battles. Jaune wondered if he could learn a thing or two about strategy from her, just by witnessing her work on something as trivial as a research paper.

"Well, I think we have a good plan. We seem to know our stuff, so we shouldn't research it that much. Nevertheless," Emerald jotted down some letters and numbers, "here's my scroll ID. Text me and I'll text you. If you can, send me a… fuller set of research notes on your end by tomorrow, if you can, get a first draft of the Vale part of the paper done in two days' time. Would that be enough? "

"I can get something done by then." Jaune nodded, _I hope._ "Until then, should we physically meet some other time?"

"That shouldn't be necessary," Emerald said with a smile, "though maybe we can meet together to help set up the final draft, other than that, we can purely communicated through our Scroll-Mail, if that's okay with you?"

Jaune nodded… but then shook his head. "I mean… isn't' the whole point of this program is for us to work together and… get to know each other. I mean…."

"There will be plenty of time for that," Emerald said quickly, "this assignment is rather simple, even for us first years. Anyone with legitimate combat training should be able to do this with minimum effort, and excel with moderate effort."

Jaune felt a bead of sweat drip from his temple. "Oh yeah…. Of course. I mean, I can totally do it, it just reminds me of… the training my Dad gave me."

"Ah…. Your Dad trained you?" Emerald said as she leaned forward on the table, smile widening and eyes glaring. "What was that like?"

"Uh…." Jaune scratched the back of his head. Hard. "….it was, intense but…. It got me prepared with what I want to do so… .uh…. that's all there is to say about that."

"Indeed," Emerald leant back in her chair, but then gave that pensive stare to the ceiling. She seemed to be searching for words, her smile twitching, making slight contortions to her mahogany face. She then sighed, "don't you have training with Pyrrha?"

"Oh yeah!" Jaune jumped up, realizing that he should probably fetch Crocea Mors from the locker rooms which were across the school. "Thanks for reminding me… time sure flies when you're having fun, right?"

"Indeed, I wouldn't want to forget such a great opportunity, the Pyrrha Nikos herself, helping you out, making you better…." What was she getting on about, she seemed almost wistful as Emerald descended through a list of similar phrases. It then hit Jaune. _Oh…._

"Oh, Emerald… about Pyrrha…." Emerald's eyes widened, but the smile remained the same as she gave Jaune her full eye contact.

"What about her?"

"She… doesn't really like adoration about her exploits or…. Mentions of her fame. In all honesty, it's probably why she didn't want to meet you, since you're from Haven and all…." Jaune should've seen it, the way that Pyrrha seemed almost rushed in her explanation as to why she had to stay behind with Goodwitch for a good HOUR. Jaune cursed himself for not noticing sooner. "Anyway, if you do meet her, which I hope you do," Emerald nodded along, "just…. Do your best to squash any adoration you have for her, and treat her like a human being. Not like…. Uh…."

"Not like an invincible girl?"

"Yeah…. That…." Jaune nodded, "don't mention that name to her either… trust me…. it strikes a nerve."

Emerald once again nodded cheerfully, as she picked up her books and joined Jaune in walking out of the library.

"Have a good night Emerald! Sweet Dreams!" Jaune almost instantly cursed at himself for saying such a childish, stupid phrase. It didn't have to be Weiss, he'll always say something that sounded stupid at least once in every conversation.

Emerald stopped, standing rigid. Her smile was suddenly destroyed, crashing down into a frown. That frown, however, only lasted a second, and Emerald once again returned to a healthy stride.

"You too!"

* * *

Maya Cobb-Weber sat in her reading chair, though with no book in her hand. A tarantula calmly crawled over her knuckles and rested along her arm, as other, smaller, spiders danced around her legs. They were harmless, they were well trained. Those that weren't well disciplined were regulated to the cages.

She sighed, it would be a shame for Jaune to be found out and kicked out of Beacon. He really wanted it. When she told him her price he fell into despair, telling her he'd do anything on top of all the money he had for her to make some transcripts.

She at first wanted to scoff and send him away, she didn't know who his reference was and he certainly wasn't dangerous enough to fear saying "no" to…. but then she thought about it.

She was a lonely, old woman. All of her companions were either criminals or dead criminals. She hadn't had consistent and pleasant company for a long time. Someone she could smile at, someone who had hair to tousle, someone….

Someone to share her love with. It's been so long.

And tonight, as coincidence commanded, was another one of her and Jaune's…. sessions.

Her scroll beeped, and she went on the move. She got into her car, left her safehouse, and picked Jaune up and a random location. He donned the blindfold, like a good boy, and they drove back to the safehouse.

"So…. Maya…. What's the schedule tonight?" He sounded nervous, but he always was.

"We're doing one of my favorites," Maya smiled grandly as she led Jaune into her bedroom. She closed the door. Maya smiled as she lowered herself onto her bed, her older body creaking slightly from the effort, and shifted the back of her head to the pillow, and placed her legs parallel to the mattress. She smiled a satisfied smile as she closed her eyes, and….

"Sit down and read 'The Duke of Heartless Hollow' for me. First… ten chapters?" Maya asked as Jaune sat down in the reading chair, a good three feet from the bed. Jaune sighed, went to the book that Maya herself and laid on the armrest. He picked it up.

" _Chapter One. The moors were a dismal place, filled with swamp and fog that corrupted every step and every breath. No eye could see beauty in them except in some masochistic fascination of ugliness. Duchess Marigold, the elderly wife to the ailing Duke, was one of those eyes….."_

Jaune's voice wasn't deep or profound, rather high pitched and shrill for a man, yet…. She craved the youth in that voice, she hadn't heard youth for so long. Not some child giving into crime to make ends meet, just a young boy trying to be a legally abiding and contributing member of society…. It was so refreshing.

And that she could share her schmaltzy "love" stories with someone also made her feel more fulfilled…. Give an old woman some company and some fantasy. Jaune was the best thing that happened to her for a while.

He wasn't so terrified of the spiders now… though he always did start protesting when one crawled up his leg from beneath his pants…. That was always funny.

* * *

 **A/N: Been a while since I updated this story eh? Well, I had to take a break from the holidays. I had writers block. I was busy. And I write best at night, yet I have to wake up before six most mornings. So I either had to miss a writing session, or subject myself to a really rough morning…. Hooray!**

 **Also, originally I was going to reveal what Jaune does to satiate this old lady for her big favor in making his transcripts next chapter but…. Well…. I didn't really see a point to prolong this "Jaune was molested by some Old Lady" theory that was admittedly hinted at even before that last passage, and while I did say I would explore extremes…. Jaune being coerced into sex for favors seemed too far and wouldn't really make sense given the portrayal of Jaune in this story.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Fave! Follow! Review! Start a Spider Book Club!**


	7. Reminders and Reasonings

**A/N: I don't own RWBY. That goes to Rooster Teeth, with its conception to the late Monty Oum.**

* * *

Emerald sat back in the wooden chair, legs crossed and hands on her scroll. She placed it on vibrate, so she could be fully aware when it rung, but it wouldn't disturb that many people, only those directly near her.

 _BZZZT!_

Which, considering it was just Mercury, wasn't too much of a concern.

"Oum my Monty how many times does your boyfriend need to message you?" Mercury groaned as he slouched in his own chair, metal feet loudly clunked onto the table that only mildly covered his agonizing sigh.

Emerald just rolled her eyes, not even bothering to humor him by correcting the "boyfriend" line. "It's what happens when two people are willing to put work into an assignment, and not just frontload it onto the one who actually gives a damn about doing a good job." Emerald would give Jaune one thing, he wasn't lazy. A little bit of an underachiever, but if you put standards and expectations on him, he would do his best to meet them.

Cinder would like this guy, even if he turned out to be useless in the grand scheme of things.

It had been a couple days since her meeting with Maya, which by circumstance also was a couple days past their first meeting on the stupid regional Grimm paper. As with most assignments Beacon prescribed to her and her "fellow students," it was stupid. It was relatively useless; simple busy work given to create the illusion of learning. Nevertheless, it was her duty to portray herself as a student and win the good graces of the professors. Thus, she should do well. Cinder encouraged hard work on the frivolous assignments, for it "kept their work ethic sharp in the times where all they could do was wait."

Mercury didn't take that advice to heart. He preferred lounging about and biding his time entertaining himself, reading magazines, fucking random girls, and being a general smartass. The only thing he appeared to take seriously was fighting.

The door to the foreman room in the abandoned warehouse opened to reveal Torchwick walking in grandly, with his little pet Neo by his side. Emerald pulled up her scroll, " _in the middle of some team exercises, can't take texts for a while. :)",_ and put it in her pocket.

"Well, should I be expecting Ms. Fall, or is it my lucky day?" Torchwick smiled as he leaned forward in his cane, pressed dead center into his frame.

"Cinder has other things to do." What those other things were, Emerald wasn't entirely sure. "She just wanted to make sure that everything is in order when we introduce the stolen Atlas tech to the White Fang."

"Oh really? I thought you wanted just wanted to chat!" He placed his hand on his chest, flamboyantly feigning indignation while looking melodramatically upward, "but apparently you only approach me for business, what a disgrace! What an insult! What do you think Neo?" He faced his diminutive henchwoman, "is it our doom to consult with such soul-less children, who only see people for their practical use, outside of their emotional value of companionship?"

Neo blinked as she brought a facing outward hand to her forehead, and looked away, continuously blinking as poisonous tears dripped down her forcibly distraught cheeks.

"Cut the crap Torchwick," Emerald sighed, "would you actually _like_ hanging out with us? I'm not entirely sure if we're pleasant company." She crossed her arms as Mercury finally rose from his chair, lazily swaying in a confident swagger with a smarmy grin on his face.

"I dunno Emerald, I'm pretty sure Torchwick and I could do some damage on the night scene…"

Emerald shook her head in annoyance. "Is everything set up or not?"

"I have a paladin ready to be showcased for the White Fang meeting tonight, others are on standby, waiting in this facility." Torchwick smiled as he gestured them towards the door. "To think, Ironwood won't even report this theft as he advertises his technology to the world, as to not create panic."

"That is one positive with the creatures of Grimm." Mercury lazily added, "it's just so depressing to tell the public what we're up to, they have no choice but to keep it a secret."

"I'm not used to acting in such secrecy, that's Neo's forte. Anyways," they walked onto the catwalk overlooking the entire warehouse floor, "BEHOLD!"

The floor was laced with rows upon rows of Atlesian manual paladins, designed for a single individual to act with the power of a high artillery tank. Grimm could be squashed down easily, but also a crowd of people could be readily scattered and dispatched, and a building could be wrecked with a single punch. A terrorist would be able to cause real damage with just one…

…but they were giving them hundreds, if you included the ones that were to be sent to Mountain Glenn in short time.

"I have to admit, before our little partnership, I couldn't even fathom holding this much power in one building!" Torchwick chuckled, "with this arsenal I could easily control all the streets of Vale!"

"They aren't for you," Emerald emphasized, "they're to grant us trust between the White Fang and our cause."

"I know, I know, still. Neo! What would you think about piloting one of these things?" Torchwick once again turned his eyes onto his partner in crime, his face aglow in fantasy.

Neo shrugged, looking unimpressed, and extended her hand, palm facing the ground, and wiggled it back and forth.

"Bah! You've always been the stealthy assassin anyway, this is a bit too obvious…." Torchwick than smiled as he rubbed his hands together, "a bit more for my liking."

Emerald huffed as Mercury chuckled. "I know what you mean," Mercury also seemed lost in reverie, "if I could just pilot one of those things for like five minutes, my life would be complete…."

"Boys…. Am I right Neo?" Emerald smirked towards the silent assassin, who nodded in agreement.

"Anyway, there's just one more in the warehouse across town, where the White Fang is organizing a recruitment session for the downtrodden faunus of Vale." Torchwick returned from gazing longingly at the army of mechs, "it's fully operational, though is purely for demonstration purposes. If anyone decides to attack the gathering, however…." Torchwick smiled, "I will be tempted to give it a test ride!"

"Do you even know how to operate one of those things?" Emerald asked.

Roman simply laughed, "I piloted bullheads before! It's just a couple extra buttons, I've observed the cockpit. I could easily improvise…."

"Just… don't pilot it just because you want to… only in an emergency." Emerald warned.

"And what qualifies as an emergency?"

"Anything you can't just handle with Melodic Cudgel, okay?"

"Wow….the authority, the gall to tell me what to do!" Roman laughed a short laugh, before craning his torso towards Emerald, his voice softening. "You truly are trying to be just like Cinder, aren't you?" Roman Torchwick leaned on his cane, cackling an almost miniscule laugh behind every word. "You do realize that, to me, you look like the average street punk that I give a job just to be cop bait while I make my move."

There was a drop in Emerald's stomach, as the words reached into her ears and mocked her, reminded her of who she was once and was currently. Emerald peered right into Torchwick's eyes. "I'm no street punk, and I'm much more dangerous."

"If I sicced Neo on you…. would you survive?" Torchwick raised an eyebrow. "I know Cinder would, but you?"

"If you fear Cinder, you wouldn't talk to me like that." Emerald glowered, feeling an indignant rage brewing within her gut, boiling up from where her stomach dropped previously.

"I do fear Cinder, that much is true, but you two…." Roman leaned back and smiled, "I just respect as her confidants. We're equals, you both and I!" He continued smiling, "we're both just along for Cinder's ride, no matter how much you think your hot stuff, Emerald." He then shifted his cane up from off the ground, his hand grasping the middle of the Cudgel's shaft, and turned around, once more looking at the army of inoperative robots below. "Know your place thief, I'm pretty sure Cinder taught you that."

"I…" her shoulder was suddenly grasped by Neo, whose tiny delicate hands had the grip of a python. Even Mercury looked serious, a visible bead of sweat dripping down his brow. Emerald grit her teeth and backed off, much to Torchwick's smug satisfaction.

"That's why today's my lucky day, I get to watch Cinder's pets struggle without their leader." He contentedly hummed a tune that Emerald didn't recognize, "Nevertheless, tell the boss she's getting what she asked for, and that I'm more than eager to hear her next order, such as when I'll be forced to head to that stinkin' abandoned city to prepare that train bomb." He shook his head, "the things I do for your dear Cinder. There won't be anything good to eat over there, I'll have to actually prepare to camp!"

"You'll deal with it," Emerald replied hotly as both Mercury turned around to leave. She didn't even grace Torchwick with another look.

"Bye bye!" Roman joyfully shouted, "don't come back unless it's important, I have another vital client of mine coming into town! He's brought his entire circus!" Emerald slammed the door behind her as they entered the foreman's office once more. She steamed across the office, opened the other door, and left through the back into the hot afternoon.

The sun beamed its judgmental eye as Emerald scowled and Mercury timidly followed behind her. And to think, she was going to stay behind and see if she could ask him about "Paulie," Jaune's mysterious link into the criminal underworld. But no, Torchwick had to be an ass.

"Don't let it get to ya, Em." Mercury said, surprisingly gentle, "you're tough stuff in my book."

"He's just…. URRGGH!" Emerald growled as she whipped herself back to face Mercury, "I can't… stand it when people talk down to me, I….. OUM! Just gets me under my skin!" Emerald kicked a trash can adjacent to her foot, it violently clanged under the force of her powerful strike.

Mercury shrugged, "hey, it is what it is. Now…. What would you like to do tonight? I hear there's some kind of activity that helps relieve stress…."

Emerald's jaw dropped. "Really?"

"Hey, I mean, I just want to help, and you're pretty tightly wound…."

"How many times to I have to say it, no! I'm not one of those whores that just says 'yes' because they feel like it!"

"Can't blame a man for trying…."

"UHG!" Emerald grasped her hair as she huffed out furious beats of breath. "You fucking playboy!"

"Hey, it's not something you don't know." Mercury shrugged, "besides, I seriously think that if you keep yourself this hard-wound, you're going to crack. What if some of the students at Beacon talk down to you?"

"People only talk down to people they know they have power over…. Which, to a typical hunter student, is being able to easily beat someone in combat." Emerald growled, "and that won't happen to me."

"Still, you should find some way to let out steam, why do you think I go to so many girls? Our work is stressful! I'm sure Cinder sneaks off to find men just to bring her carnal pleasure that she could never admit to with us…."

"Mercury…. No." Emerald wouldn't just find some guy and fuck his brains out to release some anxiety and anger. She could do that, easily. Even if she wasn't attractive, her semblance certainly could pick-up what she lacked in certain areas.

But… even after all this time, stealing and killing and plotting, she couldn't bring herself to manipulate someone into her bed, because…..

 _Ya knows? People say only men want sex. That's a lie…. Women just feels they need to be choosy for some reason. You don't have to be… just enjoys all of it when it comes to ya…. If you look at it as just 'fun,' it'll be easi-ah._

She shuddered slightly, and ignored further recollections.

She then pulled up her scroll, " _Hey Jaune! Done with my team exercises! :) How are things going for you?"_

* * *

"You know, with all this organizing and smuggling so much Atlas equipment and stealing all this dust, I can't _wait_ for a day we can just take it easy!" Torchwick smiled as he continued surveying the maintenance checks on his new toys. "It's been a while since we've seen Leo Pines, isn't it Neo?"

Neo nodded, smiling mischievously as Torchwick pulled a small flier out of his pocket. He unfolded it to see the smiling visage of one of his closest friends, wearing his ridiculous getup of a black and red checkerboard trench coat, equally colored top-hat, white gloves, and a black eyepatch with a heavily illustrated red eye on top, with another eye the same hideous plaid that dominated his entire outfit.

 _Ringmaster Patchwork's Insane Circus!_ Was written in frilly golden writing along the top, with _Games! Food! And of course, The Greatest Live Show in Remnant!_ Written along the bottom. Roman chuckled at the gaudiness of it all.

"To think, I rescued you from that clown!" Torchwick chuckled as Neo noiselessly smirked as she sat on Torchwick's desk, crossing her legs. "Can't belittle him for the training he gave you, though…."

Neo shrugged.

"Okay, he only helped barely: you were already a killing machine." Torchwick smiled as Neo happily nodded in agreement. "Still, one of my greatest clients. It's amazing how easy it is to smuggle drugs through a traveling circus. The police just expect vice among the employees, they don't bother to check the things coming out!" Torchwick laughed again as Neo continued to grin with good mirth.

"Ooooh, I miss the old times, when it was just me, my goons, you, and my only high profile clients were simply traveling criminals, giving me product to sell on the streets." Torchwick wistfully said, his voice drifting to the rafters in the cold warehouse. "You think working with a large scale terrorist plot would be fun, but it's just _tiring_ after a while! I can only imagine what it does to you," Roman gestured towards his definitive number 2, "you had to live with those people for a full school semester, I would go mad!"

Neo stuck out her tongue as she raised her left hand, pointed to her temple, lifted her thumb, and then mimicked a gun piercing a bullet through her skull, jerking her neck into a slant as she rolled her eyes to the back of her head.

"Whatever, they got what they want and we got what we want. We just have to keep playing their little game." Torchwick pinched the bridge of his nose. "Today, we do our duty. Next weekend, when the circus rolls around, we enjoy the olden days. Let us forget these complicated plots and silly conspiracies." Torchwick picked up his cane and lifted it to the air. "To old times!"

Neo picked up a mug and gestured it skywards as well. They air- _clinked_ their objects, and returned to sitting in peace.

* * *

Oobleck had his readings, Port had his essays, Goodwitch demanded practice, and he also had to keep showing Emerald that he was trying to keep up.

It was school, it was expected to happen.

Jaune groaned as he finally finished filling out the reading guide for chapter 5 in their history textbooks. Jaune was always amazed how much information people knew about events prior. All of this from ancient documents that were barely legible, let alone an object where volumes upon volumes of information could be gleamed.

He slammed the book shut, and rubbed his eyes. He _really_ just wanted to fall asleep, but….

"Hey Jaune!" Pyrrha practically cooed from across the room, "practice in five! I'll see you on the roof!"

"Yeah…. Yeah… I'll be there Pyrrha." Jaune groaned as he forced himself out of his chair that seemed like a decent resting place. He was about to fetch his sword when he felt a vibration in his pocket.

He pulled it out. It was from Emerald. " _Hey Jaune, thanks for keeping me informed all day! :)!"_ Wow, a smiley face with an _exclamation point_ afterwards, truly Emerald was just thrilled!

Jaune rolled his eyes, and read the rest of his ally's message.

" _How about we meet tomorrow and finalize everything, we have your rough draft, my rough draft, and plenty of research. If we just prepare a bit, we could nip this in the bud! Does that sound good?"_

Jaune texted back, _"sounds good! I think I'm off of Pyrrha's training…"_ And from a Cobb-Weber reading session, _"…that day, so if we need to, we can do it in the evening."_

It immediately vibrated back, _"Evening sounds great! How about six o' clock?"_

 _"Perfect,"_ Jaune closed his scroll and put it in his pocket.

"You truly are keeping in touch with this Emerald girl," Ren said lazily, head still in another large tome of unquenchable knowledge.

"She's like Weiss, everything has to be in order, so…. I humor her." Jaune shrugged as he reached for Crocea Mors.

"Ah," was all Ren said in response.

"Or maybe this girl likes youuuuu," Nora teased, popping up on her bed and kneeling on the mattress, pointing a jovially accusing finger at her leader. "You should ask her to the dance!"

"Nora… no." Jaune shook his head, "and the dance is months away."

"I'm just saying, the only other girl who gives you this much attention is Pyrrrrrrrrrrrrr," Nora suddenly stopped what she was saying, humming that syllable till her breath gave up.

Jaune laughed, "yeah, Pyrrha. She's just my partner and everything, same thing that Emerald is my 'ally' and everything. We work together, and we keep in contact. The relationship should be similar."

Jaune heard a _thunk_ as Ren let go of the large book he was reading and let gravity connect the pages to his face. Nora's face froze in a smile that seemed to struggle to hold back a scream.

"What?"

"Just…." Nora seemed to be, for the first time that Jaune could think back to, struggling for words. "….maybe it shouldn't be the exact same. I mean, I understand a partner is there constantly, but your inter-kingdom ally is just a one-off for this semester. Maybe you shouldn't model the relationship to your 'ally' after how you interact with your 'partner.'" Nora said those words incredibly carefully, like she was tip-toeing around something important. Jaune decided not to think too much about it.

Jaune shrugged, "it's nothing to worry about; Emerald's just a little bit bossy and a busy body, nothing that I am unused to. Anyway, speaking of my partner…" Jaune sheathed his sword along his hip, "I have a practice to attend."

He walked out into the corridor, grasping the hilt of his sword. He walked through the halls, ignoring the looks the other students gave him. Some of it was questioning, others were envious: people knew where he was going. You don't get private lessons with The Pyrrha Nikos and not have people know about it.

However, they were lucky. No one bothered to interrupt, it was as if they were frightened of Pyrrha fending them off. Jaune didn't know why they constantly succeeded in privacy despite training on what was the most public venue outside of the very hallways of the school. It's not like they were unheard by the rooms directly beneath them, the Cardin incident proved that, it was just… everyone was interested in leaving them alone.

But that didn't change the fact that people stared as he walked the halls of Beacon.

It was then that Jaune noticed it, a special kind of staring. Her eyes were like Blakes, but seemed more…. "alive?" A bright amber that sparkled like flame, and that proceeded to make their way towards him, the eyes attached to an admittedly attractive- no, _sexy_ \- woman as she sauntered towards him.

"Hello, Jaune Arc, is it?" The woman said, smiling as she offered her hand. Jaune took it, taking in the delicate creaminess her smooth skin hinted at. Her delicate fingers working their way around his hand….

Jaune just knew this woman could take him out: easy.

"Hello, I am he…. yes." Jaune felt a wave of heat reach his face: a blush. How childish? He was seventeen, he shouldn't go into overdrive just over a woman's looks! Hell, if it happened all the time he wouldn't be able to talk to anybody, not even his own damn partner! "And…. and you are?"

"Cinder Fall, leader of Team CMLE, I assume Emerald has told you about me?"

 _Oh yeah, Emerald's leader…. Cinder._ He knew nothing about her; only her name and that she exists. Most people wrote her off as a hands off kind of leader, a laissez-faire approach to her team that allowed them freedom and the ability to strengthen on their own. Yet Emerald stated that they did "team exercises," to excuse any period of time that Jaune couldn't send a reply until further notice.

She probably ran a tighter ship than was apparent. Nevertheless, Jaune could respect that. It wasn't the leader's duty to _appear_ like a leader throughout, it only mattered within the team. Ruby sure as hell didn't look affective out in public, until you saw her team-exercises…. Then you realized how scary a leader the fifteen year old was.

And as such, the leader was taking initiative to introduce herself to Jaune.

"You haven't said much, are you thinking about something?" Cinder seemed to enjoy Jaune's conversational incompetence. _Wait… did all that thinking happen in real time…. It did…. Dammit._

"Well…. as much as I… appreciate being approached, I have somewhere to be…."

"Ah yes… shouldn't leave your partner waiting." Cinder smiled as she moved out of the way, "nevertheless…. If you ever have any questions about Emerald, feel free to come to me. I, as her leader, may be able to give you some insight where you simply lack the experience."

"Oh… uh…. thanks." Jaune sheepishly smiled as he hurriedly moved past the beautiful woman, and didn't even grace her with a look-back. He wasn't afraid of her…. he just felt that she was one of those types that didn't say everything she wanted to say, similar to Emerald, in a way.

The smiley faces, the kind remarks, it was just Emerald's way of being polite. The same way Pyrrha acted polite to her fans when they dared to approach her. She smiled, she laughed at their remarks, and when she turned around, that smile would suddenly be replaced with a look of either annoyance or fatigue, depending on her mood.

Emerald was probably just like that, but… for different reasons. Jaune would love to ask Cinder how to get her to break out of her shell, but…. Cinder didn't seem like the person to ask for that, Cinder seemed just about as guarded as Emerald, but a little more sly about it, used to distracting people with her sexual charm and confidence.

Jokes on her, every woman makes Jaune feel like that one way or the other. He was used to it.

Pyrrha stood up at the roof, her arms crossed and tapping her foot. "You're a couple minutes late."

"Sorry," Jaune replied, with no sheepishness to be spared, "I got stopped by Emerald's leader. She wanted a chat."

"Oh." Pyrrha suddenly stopped tapping her foot and ferrokinetically called her weapons to her hands. "Did she say anything?"

"Nothing of note, just that she was always available for questions about Emerald." Jaune shrugged, "maybe it's just an olive branch, or an attempt to get to know me since I introduced Emerald to Nora and Ren."

"Oh yeah…. That." Pyrrha sighed, "sorry I wasn't able to meet her, I was just busy with Goodwitch's special plans for combat class."

"It wasn't your fault," _I'm not going to pressure you into the truth,_ "Emerald seemed disappointed but… well, not too disappointed."

"What?" Pyrrha looked confused.

"I mean…. She didn't look like she was searching for your autograph, or anything. She clearly knows who you are, but she didn't necessarily mope around not having the chance to meet you." Jaune smiled, "maybe give it time, she could recognize you the same way I, Ren, and Nora do…. As our friend."

Pyrrha smiled lightly, "thanks…. I mean, it can't be the worst social interaction I ever had. That goes to Weiss."

"Ah, lay off Weiss, Pyr…. She was probably looking for someone she could relate to, probably hates the fame as well." Jaune smiled at thinking about Weiss, he couldn't help it.

"Oh, of course. I'm sorry." Pyrrha replied flatly, as if there was a trace of disgust. She then pointed Milo at Jaune, "before we get into technique, as usual, come at me with all you got, and we'll work from there."

* * *

That night, a quadrant of Vale was engulfed in absurdist chaos. A giant robot stomped along the street, causing crashes and pile-ups everywhere. Witnesses claimed it appeared to look just like those paladins that Atlas had been showing off just that morning. As well as that, there were rose petals that fell out of the sky like rain, an inexplicable ice slick down the road, fire surges where there shouldn't be any, and also….

Rainbows and Trumpets.

"Why did we drag him along?" Weiss lamented as Flynt just blew out a barrage of hypersonic wind dust at a giant robot, as if that would help.

"We're supposed to bond Weiss, so we bonded!" Yang smirked as she continued to just accept the fact that a mech was punching her all over, savoring the chance to unleash hell from her semblance.

"Did I really have to bring his partner to the White Fang meeting though?" Blake screamed as the faunus she was talking about zoomed in and out, dancing to and fro with rainbows carving around the destroyed intersection.

"Aw c'mon, you know you love having me!" Neon stuck out her tongue and winked.

"I would've preferred Sun…" Blake groaned.

Flynt separated into a quartet barrage, slowing the mech down in its tracks.

Which was all Yang needed to fly through the air and land one hell of a punch on the cockpit, dismantling the entire machine.

"Woohoo!" Ruby yelled as she hopped up and down, satisfied that her team-maneuvers worked so well on the field.

The joy was short-lived, however, when Torchwick crawled out, and was suddenly accompanied by a short, smirking, umbrella touting lady, and then shattered into the air when Yang let out one last hurrah with her fist.

The bullhead flew over them, with Torchwick laughing and the girl's smirking somehow audible despite its lack of any perceivable sound. It made Yang furious. Furious enough to ignore Weiss's admittedly wonderful pun, a pun Yang would've enjoyed in different circumstances.

"So… Yang." Yang turned around to see Flynt Coal, "don't we have a paper that we're supposed to write?"

"And this is why I volunteered to the program…" Weiss grumbled.

* * *

 **A/N: Fave! Follow! Review! Stop a Giant Robot with a Trumpet Solo!**


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